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As one of Kemi's top female frontbenchers calls them ‘instruments of suppression’...

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UK HANDS OUT 1,000 HIJABS TO CHANNEL MIGRANTS

EXCLUSIVE

By Glen Owen

POLITICAL EDITOR

SMALL-BOAT migrants have been given more than 1,000 free hijabs on the British taxpayer this year, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Internal government figures show that officials have been handing over

Muslim head coverings to those illegally landing on our shores at a rate of 162 a month.

Last night, the Conservatives said it was ‘an insult to hard-working British

Turn to Page 4 >>

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UK FORECAST

REGIONAL FORECASTS

London, South East, South, South West, Channel Islands: Morning: Mist clearing to sun. Afternoon: Mostly sunny, light winds. Evening: Cooler with clouds, gentle breeze. Max 21C 70F.

Wales, Midlands, East Anglia:

Morning: Mostly cloudy. Afternoon: Sunny intervals with light breeze.

Evening: Cloudy with occasional clear spells. Max 20C 68F.

North West, North East: Morning cloudy with light winds. Afternoon remains overcast and breezy.

Evening continues cloudy with gentle winds. Max 18C 64F.

Scotland: Morning: Cloudy with light winds. Afternoon: Rain showers, breezy conditions. Evening:

Mostly cloudy, winds easing. Max 16C 61F.

Northern Ireland, Eire: Morning: Mostly cloudy, light breeze. Afternoon: Cloudy with moderate winds. Evening: Overcast, winds easing slightly. Max 19C 66F.

YESTERDAY (24 hours to 6pm) –

Warmest: Cavendish, 23c.

Coldest: Santon Downham, 4c.

Wettest: St Bees Head, 40.00mm.

Sunniest: Shoeburyness, 10.0hrs.

Barometer (6pm) – 1029.15mb.

Falling. Humidity: 71 per cent.

WEEK AHEAD

Monday starts with mostly cloudy skies. By Tuesday, expect rain in many areas, with showers persisting into Wednesday. Thursday sees a mix of sunshine and cloud, with rainfall easing gradually.

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SIX-DAY FORECAST | MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | LONDON | 22 | 22 | 17 | 16 | 18 | 18 | ABERDEEN | 17 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 15 | 13 | BELFAST | 18 | 13 | 13 | 12 | 14 | 13 | BIRMINGHAM | 21 | 19 | 15 | 14 | 16 | 16 | CANTERBURY | 21 | 20 | 17 | 16 | 17 | 18 | CARDIFF | MIST | 19 | 19 | 16 | 15 | 16 | 16 | GLASGOW | 16 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 13 | LEEDS | 20 | 17 | 15 | 14 | 15 | 14 | MANCHESTER | 20 | 17 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 14 | NEWCASTLE | 20 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 16 | 15 | NORWICH | 22 | 21 | 16 | 15 | 17 | 16 | PLYMOUTH | 19 | 19 | 17 | 16 | 17 | 16 |

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CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS

All our journalists observe the Editors' Code of Practice and the Mail is a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). We aim to correct any errors as promptly as possible.

■ To report an inaccuracy, email corrections@ mailonsunday.co.uk. To make a formal complaint, go to mailonsunday.co.uk/readerseditor. You can also write to Readers' Editor, The Mail on Sunday, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY, or contact IPSO directly at ipso.co.uk. ipso. Regulated

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D-day ‘imminent’ as watchdog concludes probe on Farage’s £5m gift from crypto chief

Reform critics ‘dupe their way into Question Time audience’

By Brendan Carlin and Dan Hodges

NIGEL FARAGE faces an ‘imminent’ decision from a standards watchdog over whether he breached Westminster rules by not declaring a £5million donation.

The Mail on Sunday understands that an inquiry into the undeclared gift from cryptobillionaire Christopher Harborne has now been completed – with sources predicting it will conclude that the Reform UK leader should have made it public.

If so, Mr Farage could be hit with a lengthy Commons suspension and even a second by-election in a few months.

However, that would spark a fierce backlash from Reform supporters, given that Mr Farage has claimed the donation was for his personal

By Glen Owen

BBC presenter Fiona Bruce has admitted privately that the Question Time audience is packed with critics of Nigel Farage's Reform Party, it was claimed last night.

The 62-year-old, below, is said to have told a group of panellists and Westminster aides after the recording of Thursday's show that Left-wing supporters were telling producers they were Reform supporters in order to secure a place in the audience – and would then lambast the Reform panellist as soon as the cameras were rolling.

The BBC insisted last night that it did ‘not recognise that characterisation’.

Reform MP Suella Braverman was embroiled in fiery exchanges with the audience last week after saying during a debate on migration that she does not consider herself English, despite being born in London.

POLITICAL EDITOR

when they are not and then, when the show has begun, laying into the Reform panellist. She said, “It’s not our fault if people lie and say they’re Reform supporters to get themselves into the audience.”

A Reform UK source said: 'The producers of Question Time claim to have a politically balanced audience, but when the cameras stop rolling even the programme's host, Fiona Bruce, admits that this isn't true. In fact, they operate a slipshod vetting system that encourages anti-Reform audience members to participate in plain sight.

security and that he faced 300 threats a month.

'It's for reasons like this that a Reform UK government will scrap the TV licence fee.'

Just two days ago, the alleged killer of former MP and Reform spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe was charged with preparing acts of terror against Mr Farage.

The Reform leader has previously insisted that he was under ‘no obligation’ to declare the gift, received in early 2024 before he became an MP, as it was given to pay for personal protection ‘so that I would be safe and secure for the rest of my life’.

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He confirmed in April that he had received the money. However, he was reported to the standards commissioner after both Labour and the Tories pointed out the MPs' code of

She instead described herself as British of Asian ethnicity. She was accused of ‘reinforcing the racist argument’ and ‘being racist against herself’.

A source said: 'Fiona said afterwards that audience members were lying to BBC producers by pretending to be Reform supporters

conduct states that new MPs 'must register all their current financial interests, and any registrable benefits (other than earnings) received in the 12 months before their election'.

Earlier this summer, Mr Farage sought to counter the standards inquiry and other allegations about not disclosing support from long-standing ally George Cottrell by resigning his Clacton seat.

Calling on local voters to be his judge, he said: 'I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way at all.'

After the other main political parties refused to field candidates against him, he was comprehensively re-elected. However, after his return to the Commons, standards com-

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But a BBC spokesman said: 'We do not recognise this characterisation of events at all. Fiona is often asked about the make-up of our audience and is always clear about the

missioner Daniel Greenberg promptly resumed his inquiry.

Yesterday, sources claimed Mr Greenberg had completed his report and handed his conclusion – that Mr Farage should have declared the donation – to the standards committee, which will decide on any sanctions.

That raises the extraordinary prospect that if the committee imposes a Commons suspension of ten days or more, under special ‘recall’ provisions Mr Farage could face his second by-election in a matter of months.

However, some Westminster insiders suggested last night that both Labour and the Conservatives would prefer not to give the Reform UK leader

Robust processes we have in place to ensure people are who they say they are, as she made clear on Thursday's programme.'

another chance to appeal to his local electorate.

On Friday, Joshua Kerry, who is accused of murdering Ms Widdecombe in July, was charged with a terror plot against Mr Farage.

On BBC Radio 4's Today programme yesterday, Reform deputy leader Richard Tice spoke of his ‘deep shock’ at the latest allegations and said Ms Widdecombe's death had made people take security more seriously.

He added: 'What's particularly upsetting for those around [Mr Farage] is sometimes he has not been believed, not been listened to.'

Mr Greenberg could not be reached for comment. Reform UK declined to comment.

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From Caroline Graham

IN LOS ANGELES

THEIR sizzling on-screen sexual attraction was obvious to millions of fans of the classic romantic adventure Romancing The Stone.

But for years Michael Douglas, the very much married star of the film, denied rumours that he and co-star Kathleen Turner had enjoyed a torrid full-blown affair on set.

Turner, who was single but dating real estate mogul Jay Weiss – the man she would later marry – steadfastly denied the affair, too, even when Hollywood gossip reached fever pitch when Douglas's then wife Diandra became so worried that she flew to the Mexican set and confronted her.

But now, four decades on from the 1984 blockbuster, Douglas, 82, who has been happily married to Catherine Zeta-Jones since 2000, has ‘come clean’.

In his explosive memoir One Helluva Ride, he admits he and Turner, now 72, fell madly in ‘lust’ at first sight: ‘Kathleen was smart, funny and sexy, with a deep sultry voice that became her signature. I instantly liked her and we were immediately attracted to each other.’

Douglas had been married to model Diandra Luker since 1977 and had a young son, Cameron.

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'I was knocked sideways by her'

The Fatal Attraction actor added: 'Things at home were in a bad place. Diandra and I were both having extramarital affairs. The truth is that during the production of Romancing The Stone, Kathleen and I fell hard for each other and began a relationship.

‘It wasn’t a fly-by night affair; it grew naturally from how closely we were working together, how much pressure we were under, how much we respected and cared for one another, and how attracted we were to each other.

‘Like every other guy in the world at the time, I was knocked sideways by Kathleen.’

The pair kept their affair hidden from everyone including their co-star Danny DeVito and director Robert Zemeckis.

Douglas said: 'We found each other first as friends, then as co-stars, and finally as lovers.

‘Following an exhausting day of shooting in the jungle, we’d go out and have a meal, or head out with the group and afterward I would sneak into her hotel room after everybody was asleep.'

Their clandestine romance ended when Douglas's wife flew from LA to Mexico and brought their young son. He said: 'Diandra grew suspicious. A woman's intuition, I suppose.'

Their marriage limped on until 2000 when the couple divorced – with Douglas marrying Ms Zeta-Jones that same year.

He and Turner had a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ never to discuss their relationship and for four decades both stuck to that pact.

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Yes, I DID sleep with Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas admits in new memoir. I look forward to enjoying his book, she laughs

Douglas wrote: 'The official story went as follows: Yes, we confessed, we had amazing chemistry. Yes, we were both, as Kathleen said, “terrible flirts”, and yes, we were both tempted, but nothing ever happened between us.

‘That was a lie. It was a lie meant to protect my wife and son, a lie we told the world for 40 years.’

Turner honoured that pact in an interview with The Mail on Sunday a few years ago, saying: 'The chemistry was there and Michael and I were both terrible flirts. We were in the jungle and I was feeling very romantic towards him. It was going to happen.

‘Then I walked on set one day and his wife was suddenly there. She sat next to him and that was that. You don’t mess with another woman’s husband.’

When asked last night how she feels about Douglas ‘outing’ their illicit romance, Turner appeared far from upset: ‘Good heavens, what a fuss about something 40 years ago! I love Michael and I look forward to enjoying the book.’

Last night, a Hollywood producer who worked with Douglas said: 'It was always one of Hollywood's greatest rumours and now it's been proven to be correct.

‘It took 40 years for him to admit it but you only have to watch the movie to know the sexual attraction was real.’

ON-SET CHEMISTRY: Douglas with Kathleen Turner in Romancing The Stone and, far left, with first wife Diandra

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Rruff ride? Why Rover should buckle up

SAFE: A harnessed pooch

IT'S second nature for anyone getting into a car to put on a seatbelt – and it seems the time has come to make sure your dog buckles up, too.

Four decades since it became a legal requirement for drivers and front-seat passengers to wear a seatbelt, academics say man's best friend should have their own bespoke version when riding in a car.

It comes as research reveals the

By Roger Dobson

death rate for dogs in vehicle accidents is high, with almost 10 per cent of canines involved in the 268 incidents examined dying and 28 per cent being so badly hurt they had to be rushed to a vet.

The analysis also found that the smallest breeds, which are more prone to being thrown about, were at the highest risk of death.

The Highway Code recommends animals should be ‘suitably restrained’ to prevent distractions to drivers. But while seatbelts for humans are strictly regulated and tested, those for animals are not.

As such, academics want further work to be done to create harnesses which keep pets safe. This includes looking at different restraints suitable for varying sizes of dog.

Writing in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention, the Colorado State University team said: 'As pets increasingly travel as vehicle occupants, their safety can no longer rely on unregulated products and anecdotal evidence.' They added that to prevent deaths, 'evidence-based' restraints were now needed.

From Page One

taxpayers' to dish out hijabs to those 'breaking into our country' – although the Home Office insisted it had a legal duty to provide them.

The disclosure comes amid growing political controversy over Muslim headwear, which many critics regard as symbols of female subservience.

Last night, Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott told this newspaper she was opposed to hijabs being part of school uniforms, saying: 'I do not believe the state should be party to an instrument of female suppression.'

News of the free headgear comes as there is mounting public frustration over the flow of migrants across the Channel and potential security implications.

On Friday, two Iranian nationals who had arrived on small boats were charged with planning a terrorist attack over an alleged plot targeting Manchester's Jewish community during Yom Kippur.

The hijab row erupted as:

● The Tory conference gets under way in Birmingham today, with Kemi Badenoch telling the MoS she will cut £13 billion from the welfare budget by axing disability benefits for mild health conditions such as ADHD;

\- The Conservatives announced plans to end the childcare ‘cliff edge’ which leaves families tens of thousands of pounds worse off as soon as one parent’s earnings exceed £100,000;

\- Nigel Farage is facing an ‘imminent’ decision from a standards watchdog over whether he breached Westminster’s rules by

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'Insult to hard-working British taxpayers'

not declaring a £5 million donation from a cryptocurrency billionaire; ●Reform UK sparked a fresh row with the BBC after Question Time host Fiona Bruce reportedly admitted that despite the broadcaster's claims of 'robust' vetting, Left-wingers got into the studio audience by pretending to be Reform supporters, only to barrack party representatives on air.

Home Office documents show that between January and June, 974 hijabs were given to boat migrants. At that rate, the total is likely to be close to 1,500 by now.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: 'The Government must stop handing out hijabs to illegal immigrants immediately. It's an insult to hard-working British taxpayers that they're funding religious items for people who have broken into our country. It should not be for us to fund someone else's religious practices.

‘Many illegal immigrants actually hate our values. Many come here for free accommodation and a life on benefits at our expense.

‘Illegal immigrants crossing the channel are breaking into our country. They have no legitimate reason to flee France, which is clearly safe. That’s why we must leave the European Convention on Human Rights so we can deport all illegal immigrants immediately upon arrival.’

A Home Office source said it had a legal duty to provide basic clothing, including cultural and religious items, under the Short-term Holding Facility Rules. It added: 'All arrivals receive a basic dry

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Deport me, begs ‘kill the Jews’ illegal immigrant being put up by Britain after release from prison ...so what IS the Home Office waiting for?

By Abul Taher, Jon Brady and Christine Challand

A SUSPECTED Hamas fanatic who called for the slaughter of Jews and was jailed for entering Britain illegally on a dinghy is begging to be deported, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Abu Wadee, 34, who live-streamed his journey across the channel on TikTok in March last year, is languishing in taxpayer-funded asylum accommodation because officials have no safe way of sending him back to Gaza.

After being released from prison earlier this year, the militant – real name Musab Abdulkarim Al-Qassas – was moved to a five-bed house in Corby, Northamptonshire, under the Home Office's asylum dispersal scheme.

He soon began taunting critics by posting videos about his new life to nearly three million followers, including shopping trips to buy the latest iPhones and clips in which girls, who appear no older than 13, are made to shout 'Free Palestine'.

But despite receiving a

But despite receiving a deportation order six months ago he was moved to yet another address last week amid a mounting backlash from locals after details of his past emerged. In

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WELCOMED TO UK: GUNMAN WHO SAYS DEATH TO ALL JEWS

tearful TikTok clips posted since leaving the Serco-run home, Wadee said: 'I am living here in terror in Britain, wishing they would deport me today before tomorrow. I swear by Almighty

MILITANT: Abu Wadee at the Israel-Gaza border. Left: MoS, March 9, 2025

God... I am afraid to go down to buy food and drink because of the many campaigns that the far-Right in Britain have launched against me.

'If you do not want me in the country, return me to the country, return me to Gaza where there is death, wherever you want, send me.

‘I received a refusal and a deportation order six months ago, and I am asking for deportation from them [the British Government], but they refuse to deport me.' This newspaper revealed last year how Wadee had previously posed with AK-47 assault rifles and was part of a Hamas-affiliated unit that hurled incendiary objects at Israeli troops.

In one sickening video, he called on God to ‘punish Jews’, adding: ‘Kill them one by one, and don’t leave a single one.’ The story sparked a major security alert over fears suspected terrorists were using the small-boat route to enter Britain.

But in his latest videos, discussing the brandishing of an AK-47, Wadee said: 'This photo with the weapon was at a wedding, one of our private weddings in Gaza.

'I am not with Hamas and I am not with any organisation. I am only a citizen.' Hamid Mohammadi, 34, an Iranian who was living with Wadee at the Corby house, said: 'I stayed away from him when I saw his police ankle tag. I knew he was trouble.'

The Home Office said: 'Any foreign national who receives a prison sentence in the UK is referred for deportation at the earliest opportunity.

'Over 11,000 foreign criminals including murderers and rapists have been returned or deported in the two years since the last election – a 41 per cent increase on the two years prior.'

Additional reporting: Sophie Carlin

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Yom Kippur suspect came on small boat

By Elizabeth Haigh

AN IRANIAN migrant accused of preparing a Yom Kippur bomb attack on a Manchester synagogue spent five years claiming asylum in Germany before crossing to Britain by small boat.

accused of receiving instructions to make a chlorine bomb and acquiring the liquids, components and equipment needed to manufacture or assemble an improvised explosive device.

Rahman Salehi, 34, of Salford, was allowed to stay in Britain in 2023 and has permission to remain until July 2028.

The targets allegedly included the city's Jewish Museum and the Heaton Park Synagogue, where two worshippers were killed in a terror attack on Yom Kippur last year, the court heard.

Salehi and Salam Ahmadyan, 36, of Liverpool, were arrested in Manchester on September 20 and charged on Friday with engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts.

Westminster Magistrates' Court heard that the men were allegedly in contact with an overseas third party, most likely an Iranian national operating from the Islamic republic. They are

clothing pack where required. The items available form part of standard welfare arrangements.'

The fact that three-quarters of the migrants are men is reflected

Prosecutor Mark Luckett told the court they allegedly carried out ‘what the prosecution say is a hostile reconnaissance within Manchester’s Jewish community’.

in the clothing statistics: a total of 10,694 male clothing packs were handed over, including 22 in XXX Large size. Just 2,670 packs were given to women, 773 to boys and

829 to girls. The list also includes 572 beanie hats and 350 babygrows.

Last month, Education Secretary Lucy Powell said it was unacceptable for schools to require young girls to wear the hijab, after a London primary school insisted pupils as young as seven don them. While her Tory shadow, Ms Trott, praised that stance, she added last night: 'But she's done nothing about it. This would not happen under us.'

More than 19,000 small-boat migrants have arrived so far this year, down by 42 per cent compared to the same period in 2025. However, the numbers travelling on each vessel has increased, with an average of 67 migrants packing dangerously on to every boat.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has claimed that Brexit has made it harder to stop the boats, because ‘we are not able to have the same levels of collaboration that we used to have’.

A Home Office spokesman said: 'We have made progress tackling the small boats. Crossings are down significantly.

‘We have just recorded the few-est summer arrivals since 2020.’

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By Katie Hind

CONSULTANT

EDITOR

SHOWBUSINESS

EVER since David and Victoria Beckham first found themselves estranged from their eldest son Brooklyn, they have usually been separated from him by the Atlantic Ocean.

With the influencer and his wife Nicola Peltz setting up home in Beverly Hills, and Posh and Becks living in west London, the distance between them has meant there is little chance of their bumping into one another.

But on Friday night Brooklyn, 27, and Nicola, 31, were less than a mile from both his parents and siblings as Victoria showcased her latest collection at Paris Fashion Week.

As David, Harper, Romeo and Cruz – as well as the boys' girlfriends – enjoyed their front-row catwalk seats at the Conciergerie at 2 Boulevard du Palais, Brooklyn and Nicola were enjoying a night out close to the Louvre.

This time, there was just the River Seine dividing them.

Victoria, of course, is far too much of a pro to allow that to

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'Absolutely no chance of any olive branches'

affect her show, but those who know the family wonder whether Brooklyn and Nicola were revelling in their trip to the French capital and the calendar clash.

They point out that the pair's Paris sojourn was documented by a photographer from their preferred paparazzi agency.

One source said: 'It feels like there is some trolling going on. You have to wonder whether Nicola and Brooklyn are enjoying winding it all up. They made sure they were seen everywhere thanks to a certain pap firm.

‘The irony of that, of course, is that Brooklyn has had a go at his parents for setting up picture opportunities when all of the hallmarks are there that they are doing it themselves.

‘It doesn’t matter what the distance between the two sides is, there is absolutely no chance of any olive branches or anyone making up any time soon.’

While Victoria wasn't seen in Paris until her show began at 8pm local time on Friday, Brooklyn and Nicola had been painting the city red since the middle of last week.

On Wednesday night, they enjoyed a date night, captured by the cameras, and on Thursday went to the Balenciaga show at

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Only the Seine separates the Beckhams from Brooklyn – but it might as well be the Atlantic

the Tennis Club de Paris, before moving on to a party at the Grand Palais to celebrate jewellery brand Messika.

Meanwhile, the Beckhams proudly watched Victoria, 52, show off her latest collection, with

Harper, Romeo's girlfriend Kim Turnbull and Cruz's partner Jackie Apostel all dressed in her designs.

The rift began after Brooklyn snubbed all of his father's 50th birthday celebrations.

Despite being in London, he and

Nicola refused to join the former England captain and the rest of the family for a trip to a Bordeaux vineyard, a big do at the family's countryside home in the Cotswolds and a meal at Notting Hill restaurant, Core. In January, Brooklyn

ESTRANGED: Brooklyn and wife Nicola out in Paris and (top) the Beckhams gather for Victoria's catwalk show. Left: A map showing how close they were on Friday night

BACKGRID

posted a six-page message on Instagram, where he made several heartbreaking accusations about his parents, including that his mother had embarrassed him when hijacking the first dance at his wedding.

SEE OUR NEW-LOOK DIARY RICHARD EDEN JOINS The Mail ON SUNDAY

Eden Confidential Page 31

As crunch conference starts, Tory leader challenges PM over ballooning welfare

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By GLEN OWEN

POLITICAL EDITOR

KEMI Badenoch arrived at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham last night pledging to shave £13 billion from the welfare bill by axing disability benefits for conditions such as ADHD.

Ms Badenoch told The Mail on Sunday that ‘mild anxiety, ADHD or routine back pain do not mean you cannot work’, as she vowed to end ‘cash handouts that leave people trapped in a cycle of worklessness’.

The Tories intend to make their plans to tackle the eye-watering £333billion annual cost of the social security and welfare system

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‘It’s not compassionate to damn a youngster to a life on benefits’

a key dividing line with Andy Burnham's Labour, as Westminster prepares for a possible snap election in the spring.

While Mr Burnham used his party conference speech last week to pledge to ‘adjust’ the triple-lock pensions guarantee, Ms Bade-

noch will vow to keep the existing system in place – targeting the proliferating benefits available for mental health conditions instead.

An investigation by this newspaper earlier this year revealed that taxpayers were shelling out £800 in disability benefits every minute to people claiming to suffer from anxiety. The cost of personal independence payments (PIP) for the disorder has rocketed from under £100 million in 2019 to nearly £427 million last year, under rules that allow anyone, regardless of their income, to collect the payments without ever seeing a doctor.

The benefit – worth up to £194 a week – can be awarded on nothing more than a personal diary or a letter from a friend describing how anxiety affects daily life.

The number of people claiming PIP for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has surged from 24,697 to 91,181 in six years, while the number receiving it for autism has risen from 61,641 to 210,605, at a combined cost of £2.4 billion a year.

Under Ms Badenoch's plans, ‘mild health conditions’ such as anxiety or routine back pain, which make up 43 per cent of PIP claims, would no longer make someone eligible for disability benefit, saving £13billion for the taxpayer. The claimants would instead receive support for their conditions, backed by £1billion in new funding for therapies and occupational health.

Face-to-face assessments and a ‘thorough, evidence-based assessment process’ would be used to identify those who should still qualify for disability benefits.

Those losing their benefits

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Kemi: I will save £13bn by slashing handouts for mild anxiety and ‘routine’ back pain

Defectors ‘will be let back in after six-month quarantine’

REFORM defectors will be placed in ‘quarantine’ for six months if they want to return to the Tory fold, under plans being drawn up by party chiefs.

The Mail on Sunday understands MPs who want to ditch Nigel Farage in favour of Kemi Badenoch must first sit as independents in the Commons.

Insiders believe the plan would both ‘detoxify’ those returning from the insurgent Right-wing party and prevent defectors going back again.

The Tory leader has previously said there is no way back to her party for ‘drama queens’ who defected, but the quarantine plan would provide a workaround.

One senior insider said: 'Kemi's public position is that they are past the point of no return, but privately she is pragmatic. The

would also qualify for mental health support such as talking therapies. By 2029, spending on working-age disability and sickness benefits is expected to reach £71.4billion, with the outlay on PIP alone set to rise to £41.2billion – a threefold increase since 2019, when it was £12.9billion.

Ms Badenoch said: 'My focus is making sure that those who can

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By Gabriel Millard-Clothier and Dan Hodges

political advantages of having them back are obvious.'

With a snap poll potentially looming, Mrs Badenoch is already finding candidates to fight seats.

Those with knowledge of the plans say would-be defectors should ‘get their skates on’ if they want to return to avoid awkward selection clashes.

Of Mr Farage's eight MPs, four were elected as Tories in 2024 – Robert Jenrick, Suella Braverman, Danny Kruger and Andrew Rosindell.

Senior party sources say some of these former Tories may be ‘tempted’ to rejoin their old party after a difficult summer

work, do work. Mild anxiety, ADHD or routine back pain do not mean you cannot work. We should also stop pretending that a diagnosis is a reason to give up on someone.

‘There is nothing compassionate about telling a young person that their future is a lifetime on benefits. Where people have mild conditions, we should help them, for Reform. Some former Tories have told this newspaper about the animosity they have faced in Reform after they joined.

Tory HQ has reached out to those they think might come back to make them aware of the plans being considered by party chairman Kevin Hollinrake.

The six-month timetable may be truncated if Andy Burnham calls an early election.

The dramatic move would capitalise on a shift in political fortunes for the respective leaders. In the past year, Reform has crashed eight points in the polls to their lowest point in two years, while the Tories have steadily increased, according to the Politico poll of polls.

Strategists hope it would show voters that they too can return from Reform to the Tories, amid

not leave them behind. Andy Burnham won't address these issues because he's more interested in appealing to Labour members than tackling the ballooning welfare bill. It's time to get serious on benefits. We are the only party that will.'

Since the Covid pandemic, there has been a boom in payments for psychiatric disorders, which now a collapse in support for former Ukip leader Mr Farage.

SWAPPED SIDES: Mr Jenrick.

Right: Kemi Badenoch yesterday

Some seat-by-seat projections already show Mrs Badenoch would end up with more MPs than Mr Farage, after Reform's torrid summer, dogged by scandal over donations.

A Conservative spokesman last night dismissed the story.

account for more than 40 per cent of PIP claims. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said mental health conditions accounted for 55 per cent of the rise in disability benefits.

A thriving cottage industry of unregulated no-win, no-fee firms has grown up to coach applicants through the process, taking up to 60 per cent of any backdated payment secured. Helen Whately, shadow secretary of state for work and pensions, said: 'One in four people now consider themselves disabled.

‘Claims for disability benefits have doubled since 2019 – but Britain isn’t twice as sick.

‘Our sickness benefit system was built with the best of intentions, but it is broken.

‘It pays better to be off sick and claim benefits than get help and work. The incentives are all wrong. Writing millions of people off onto benefits is morally wrong.

'And it's unfair to the taxpayers footing the bill. Conservatives will reform our sickness benefit system to bring down the welfare bill and get people back to work.'

Comment: Page 22

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Tories pledge to fix £100,000 childcare ‘cliff edge’ that forces parents to work less

KEMI BADENOCH will today pledge to scrap the notorious childcare ‘cliff edge’ which potentially leaves many working parents tens of thousands of pounds worse off.

On the opening day of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, she will vow that a Tory government would stop couples losing access to free childcare once one parent earns more than £100,000.

Branding the current system ‘absurd’, the Tories instead promised to introduce new childcare arrangements that are ‘both pro-family and pro-growth’ and were just a ‘first step’ to wider reforms of the tax system. Ms Badenoch’s party pointed out that under existing rules, families can lose access to up to 30 hours a week of free childcare if one parent earns more than £100,000.

That means some parents are better off earning £99,999 and forgoing pay rises worth tens of thousands more because they will lose access to free childcare.

The Tory pledge comes after the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation warned that by 2030, the average parent crossing this cliff edge would have to earn £124,000 to be no worse off after losing free childcare.

But citing data from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Tories said a parent with two children at nursery in London would need to earn nearly £150,000 to be better off than earning just below the £100,000 threshold.

They claimed that the policy effectively punished parents for working more, working harder, seeking a promotion or moving to

By Brendan Carlin

a better-paid job. It also made it more difficult for aspiring couples to juggle a career with raising a family, meaning some might choose not to have children, or delay having children, the Tories said.

But removing the cliff edge would make life much easier for thousands of parents who are working hard and paying their taxes, as well as boosting economic growth through improved

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‘Promotions turned down, hours reduced’

incentives to work and become more productive.

It would also tackle the unfairness of a threshold that was calculated on an individual earner's income, not on a household basis.

The Tory move comes after Chancellor John Healey was urged to reform the system.

Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott said last night: 'The childcare cliff edge creates problems for families, workplaces and nurseries – it means promotions turned down, hours reduced and endless forms. That's why the

TOP TORY WOMAN WHO VOWS TO SAVE BRITAIN'S SCHOOLS SARAH VINE INTERVIEWS LAURA TROTT – PAGES 8, 9

Conservatives would abolish the £100,000 childcare cliff edge for both free childcare hours and Tax-free Childcare, so parents have the freedom to make decisions about work and childcare based on what is right for their family.'

She added: ‘We want working families to have children. There’s a real contrast between us and Labour here. We want to reduce childcare costs for parents who are working and trying to do the right thing; meanwhile, Labour have just abolished the two-child benefit cap. It’s a real statement of values.’

Shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith said: 'Removing this childcare cliff edge is the first step in our mission to deliver lower, simpler and fairer taxes across the board.

‘We need a tax system which gives people the right incentives – supporting those who work hard, invest and run businesses here in Britain. Hardworking parents should not be punished just for trying to juggle a successful career with raising a family.’

The Conservatives said scrapping the childcare cliff edge would cost more than £700 million, but claimed that would be covered by reversing the increase since 2016 in the number of people working for ‘executive non-departmental public bodies’ such as the Arts Council.

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Brexit bigwigs want migrant referendum

THE so-called ‘bad boys of Brexit’ are reuniting to campaign for a national referendum on restricting immigration.

Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore – who ran the Leave.eu movement and were key allies of Nigel Farage – plan to bring the organisation back to raise support for a national vote on enforcing a hard cap of 50,000 net migrants a year.

Mr Banks, who gave £8million to leave.eu, said it would match Marine Le Pen's commitment to a French referendum on immigration if she wins power. His donors include Malcolm Robinson, a Manchester-based businessman who has donated substantial amounts to Reform UK.

Mr Banks was even pictured alongside Mr Farage and Donald Trump in the days after the Republican's 2016 presidential election win.

POWERFUL PALS: Banks, Trump and Farage

CONSERVATIVES IN BIRMINGHAM

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Laura Trott's the comprehensive girl who wants to

EXCLUSIVE

INTERVIEW

By SARAH

VINE

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On being a working mum of three... It's the best thing... cost should never prevent anyone having a child

POLITICS is a funny old business. Back when I was still married to a Cabinet minister and frequented the dinner tables of power on a regular basis, I remember hearing a few jealous tongues discussing a young

Special Advisor (or SpAd) at No10, a striking young woman, sharp as a tack, who had been putting the odd nose out of joint.

‘Bold as brass’ was the general gist. Funny how things turn out. Those faces are long gone, consigned to the dustbin of political failure, while the SpAd in question – Laura Trott – is now Shadow Education Secretary, a rising star of a resurgent Conservative Party.

Now 41, back then (around 2011, shortly after David Cameron became PM) Trott would have been in her mid-20s, not long a graduate of Oxford, followed by a stint at high-powered consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton.

Even before the start of the Coalition government, she had made a name for herself at the implementation unit, set up to prepare the Conservatives for power. As one friend and

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‘Friends are worried about starting a family because of the cost’

colleague who knew her back then recalls, she was ‘this unbelievably impressive spreadsheet bunny, phenomenally driven, fantastically competent, incredibly bossy – and always glammed up to the nines’.

In an arena dominated by old Etonians and assorted toffs bound by old-school ties, she stood out as a bright comprehensive girl from a tight-knit, hard-working family with a strong public-service ethos.

The first in her family to go to university, both her sisters are teachers, her mother was a special-needs teaching assistant and her father worked at the Bank of England. One of her grandparents was a milkman; another, Stan, worked as a doorman at The Sun newspaper.

'He told me Rupert Murdoch was always incredibly polite to him,' she tells me, as we sit down at the Mail offices in Kensington ahead of the Conservative Party confer-

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The perils of social media for children... I'd love to ban under-16s having smartphones

And leader Badenoch's star power... Kemi is Madonna level – with the same single-name recognition

of the Conservative Party confer-

ence in Birmingham.

Trim as a pin, blonde, and with striking blue eyes, she is resplendent in a shocking pink dress from Cefinn, Samantha Cameron's dress brand. 'I love her stuff because it doesn't crease,' she says, 'but now that the company's folded, I get it on Vinted.'

She is here to talk about the Conservatives' new announcement on childcare, which will form an important plank of their next manifesto. The plan is to scrap the childcare ‘cliff edge’ which penalises working parents for, effectively, working too hard.

Currently, when one parent's earnings exceed £100,000 a working couple can lose entitlement to up to 30 hours a week of free childcare as well as losing access to the Tax-Free Childcare scheme.

This means you can have one household where both parents earn, say, £99,000 a year and still receive the entitlement; and another, where one parent earns £100,000 and the other pockets very little, would lose out.

As a mother of three children (with her husband Bahador Mahvelati, known as 'Bids'), Trott believes very strongly that hard-working parents should be encouraged to have families, especially given the falling birth-rate, which has dipped to dangerously low levels in recent years.

It's a policy clearly designed to appeal to the beleaguered middle-classes that this Labour government have decided to ‘squeeze until the pips squeak’, as Denis Healey famously once put it.

‘We want working families to have children,' she says. 'There's a real contrast between us and Labour here. We want to reduce childcare costs for parents who are working and trying to do the right thing; meanwhile, Labour has just abolished the two-child benefit cap. It's a real statement of values.

‘Having children is the best thing that has ever happened to me,’ she adds. But I know so many friends who’ve been worried about starting a family because of the cost.

'It's robbing people of something so special, and you should never not have a child because of the cost of childcare, or turn down a pay rise because you're worried about being penalised.'

Elected as the MP for Sevenoaks in Kent in 2019, Trott has wanted to be a politician since she was 12, inspired largely by her family, which was very active in her local community, but also by (wait for it) John Major.

Not necessarily the first name that springs to mind in the pantheon of inspirational leaders, she admits; but seeing a working-class man who went to a comprehensive school like her succeed in parliament made her think she could do it too.

It is education that has always been her passion. It's also the one legacy the Conservatives can take away from their 14 years in power.

When the education reforms initiated under David Cameron began in 2010, Britain's international rankings were at an all-time save

low. Now, in England, where the changes were adopted, pupils have risen to 9th worldwide in reading (up from 20th) and 11th in maths (up from 22nd).

By contrast in Scotland and Wales, where the respective SNP and Labour governments rejected the reforms, they have fallen. Welsh teens now rank 40th internationally for reading and 42nd for maths, putting them two years behind their counterparts in England. 'Ever since I took the job as Shadow Education Secretary, which is the one I asked for, it's been about protecting standards in this country.

‘Our schools are probably the biggest public policy success of the last couple of decades. It took a long time to percolate through the system, and that’s a lesson for policymakers: the things you do

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SCAN HERE TO WATCH EXCLUSIVE VIDEO ON DAILYMAIL.COM

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our schools from Labour's wreckers

in politics often don't show up until many years later.

RISING STAR: Laura Trott with her husband Bahador Mahvelati

'The tragedy,' she adds, 'is that Labour are now undoing it, and we won't see the damage – the vandalism, I'd say – for many years to come.'

She is fierce in her criticism of Lucy Powell, her opposite number, and of Powell's predecessor, Bridget Phillipson.

'Think of everything that's wrong with this country, and they're picking on the one thing that's working really well,' she says. 'It's extraordinary.'

As well as imposing VAT on independent schools (a disastrous policy which Trott says she will immediately reverse if the Tories are elected), one of the first things Phillipson did was take away Academy freedoms.

'This means that Academies are now effectively under state control in a way they weren't before,' explains Trott. 'This also stops good schools expanding and undoes everything that drove the improvement: choice, freedom, accountability, and the ability to replicate, expand and open new schools. They're trying to wind it all back.'

Why take a wrecking ball to success, I ask? 'Because of the unions,' she says, bluntly. 'They want central control because it gives them more power. For example, the Schools Act imposes national pay scales on academies and schools. I had to point out free schools. I had to point out to them that this means giving lots of teachers a pay cut, and they hadn't even realised.

‘But that’s what drives them. It takes away freedom and choice, and it’s just wrong.’

One of the more contentious issues around schools in recent years has been the question of religious restrictions, and in

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‘What’s the PM doing to make lives better? Nothing at all’

particular head and face coverings. It emerged recently that a school in Barnet, north London was forcing girls as young as seven to cover their hair.

‘I’m very clear about hijabs not being part of the school uniform,’ she says. ‘I do not believe the state should be party to an instrument of female suppression.

'To her credit, when I asked Lucy Powell about this at the despatch box, she agreed with me – but she's done nothing about it. This would not happen under us.'

I ask her where that would leave other faith schools, such as Jewish and Catholic schools. Is there a case for saying that religion should have no place in education altogether?

'No, I don't think so,' she replies. 'I think faith schools are appropriate. We have rules about teaching British values, and many faith schools do amazing things. This is specifically about the hijab and what it means for women. I think most people can see there's a category difference.'

Trott is confident in her beliefs, and not afraid to express them, regardless of who they might offend. It's a characteristic she shares with Kemi Badenoch, whose plain-speaking, clear-sighted lack of compromise has catapulted her to the top of the political charts.

As Trott puts it, ‘She’s Madonna-level, with single-name recognition, which I love.’

Badenoch – and her team’s mission is to restore the Tory backbone, to persuade the electorate that they have a strong vision for Britain and the determination to implement it.

Where Labour is on course for ever-bigger state intervention, Kemi's Conservatives are all about individual responsibility and choice. Trott is adamant, for example, that the crisis involving NEETS (young people who are Not in Education, Employment or Training) is less to do with education and more to do with tax and welfare under Labour.

‘No one wants to employ anybody because they’ve made it so expensive,’ she says. ‘And the pull of welfare is also strong, and Labour are doing nothing about that. They’re not doing anything about retraining either.

‘That’s why Kemi’s policy is that you can’t go straight on to Universal Credit from school. Tough love is what everyone needs.’

This feeds into Trott's other passion, reducing the harms done to children from screens and social media.

‘It’s a litany of issues,’ she says. ‘There’s the physical side – we’ve got 30 per cent more children with myopia now. Then there are the back and skeletal problems, socialisation, mental health, ADHD.

‘They’re using screens so much in school now. You need a smartphone just to get the timetable and the homework. Worksheets have a QR code on them. Sorry, what? They’re seven!’

Trott worked hard to steer the ban on social media for under-16s through parliament. 'The social media companies lobbied so hard to stop it because they want to get children early: the earlier they start, the more time they spend on the platforms and the more money they make.

‘They’re monetising our children, which shouldn’t be allowed.’

Would she go further and support a total ban on smartphones for under 16s? 'I would love to,' she says. 'But we're taking it step-by-step.

'The social media and smartphone ban in schools is a really good start. What I'm going to work on now is getting screens out of the classroom. What's wrong with textbooks?'

I ask her how she feels about women and girls' about women and girls' safeguarding, not just in the context of schools but against a broader background of female single spaces and the concerns raised by groups such as the

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‘I’m very clear ...hijabs are not part of the school uniform’

women of Piddington, who have campaigned against Home Office plans to house 1,200 migrants nearby.

'The Government's record on protecting women's safe spaces isn't good,' she says. 'They had to be forced into it, and Kemi was so brave to speak out when it was still really unfashionable.'

On Piddington, she says: 'I had a constituent who was raped by an illegal migrant.

'He pretended to be a child when he was obviously about 40. To dismiss concerns like those of the women of Piddington is appalling. It's tearing our country apart.'

Finally, I ask her about the threat from Reform. Nigel Farage's party is somewhat in the doldrums now, but perhaps not for long given the huge donations from two crypto-billionaires.

'I think most people now recognise that [Reform and Farage] give you the ick. Worse than that, a lot of their stuff is quite menacing. Like their support for all these balaclava people: weird.'

Final word, then, on Burnham's speech at Labour conference last week, which many have heralded as a huge triumph. Trott is unimpressed.

‘He had nothing to say on the problems facing the country now. I’ve never seen a prime ministerial conference speech that barely dealt with the economy, nothing on international affairs, nothing on defence. It was extraordinary.

‘He delivered it very well, and he seems like a very nice man, but what is he doing to make people’s lives better today? Nothing at all.’

Something that few people could say about Trott herself.

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Ahead of vote that questions Israel's right to exist... Greens are forced to give Jewish delegates safe room at 'febrile' party conference

THE bitter split in Zack Polanski's Greens over their approach to Israel deepened last night after it emerged officials at the party conference were forced to organise a ‘safe room’ for Jewish members.

DIVISIVE: The pro-Palestinian demonstrators and, top, Zack Polanski

Ahead of a vote on a controversial motion today equating Zionism with racism – and with rival pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrations being kept apart by police outside the conference centre in Brighton – a Jewish member of the party said a room had been kept aside for their use if they felt threatened.

Amid what one source called a ‘febrile’ atmosphere, the Jewish member said: ‘We have been given a “safe room” for Jewish members to use in an emergency.

‘It was used on the first day of the conference to host a meeting between a rabbi and some Jewish members. It’s a deeply upsetting situation, but that’s the reality.’

A Green Party source confirmed: 'We have a phone number for a small number of people if they are worried and a room if they would like to use it. They come in through a different entrance to avoid any protests at the front.'

A sign reading ‘No Access To Press’ was affixed to the outside door of the room, which the MoS has agreed not to identify.

Members will vote on a motion to declare Zionism, the movement that led to the creation of Israel as a Jewish state, as a form of racism in official Green policy.

By Glen Owen and Lee Harpin

IMAGES / GETTY

Senior Greens have criticised the motion, with former leaders Caroline Lucas and Adrian Ramsay labelling it as ‘divisive’ or ‘not helpful’.

If the motion passes, the Greens would become the only mainstream party in Europe to declare itself openly anti-Zionist.

Even Mr Polanski, who has been sidetracked by efforts to try to become an MP at the Holborn and St Pancras by-election on October 8, has expressed fears over the scope of the motion. Deputy leader Rachel Millward has also described it as ‘problematic’ unless it is amended to include protection for Jewish members.

But joint deputy leader Mothin Ali told the BBC that he ‘absolutely’ backed the motion. ‘It talks about ethnic-cleansing, it talks about ethno-nationalism,’ he said.

'Anyone that believes in that, then I think it is a racist ideology.' Large numbers of police were stationed around the venue yesterday, with demonstrators from both sides also congregating on the road near the seafront.

‘I’ve been a member of the Green Party for years, but never, ever have Jewish Greens been forced to endure a situation like this,’ a senior Jewish source in the party said. ‘Security plans have been kept very secret, for obvious reasons.’

One security guard at the venue said they had been told to ‘prepare for the worst’ and to conduct thorough searches of those attending the three-day conference.

The Greens also decided to bring forward the cut-off point for those who wanted to attend the conference to September 25 to enable organisers to carry out proper security checks.

At previous Green conferences it was possible to turn up on the same day, register yourself and then go inside to watch the proceedings with ‘observer’ status.

Members of the Jewish Greens group have been privately comparing the security situation to the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn, when Jewish MPs such as Luciana Berger required protection from far-Left anti-Semites.

During the three-day conference, numerous debates on Palestine have been scheduled for the main floor and for fringe events inside the official venue.

Yesterday, a debate titled ‘Palestine: The Golden Thread that Unravelled Britain’ took place in the main hall, chaired by Zak Khan, a party member who was detained by the Israeli navy after joining the Gaza flotilla.

It also features outspoken anti-Zionist Andrew Feinstein on its panel of speakers.

Yesterday's fringe programme was dominated by sessions on Israel and Palestine, including one on alleged ‘sportswashing’ allegations, while the Palestine Solidarity Campaign hosted a Justice For Palestine session.

Mr Polanski has insisted the Green Party is ‘absolutely united’ on the issue.

Asked about the motion, he told the BBC: 'Well, this is in a context where 75,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza, 1,500 since the recent so-called ceasefire. We also know there are more child amputees than in modern history.

‘So I think what the party is absolutely united on is recognising we need to end the genocide, we need to stop selling arms to Israel.’

DARK DAYS: Oswald Mosley with blackshirts before march

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Pro-Israel groups ‘are not welcome’ at march to remember blackshirts battle

IT WAS the day East End Jews stood shoulder to shoulder with their neighbours to drive Oswald Mosley's blackshirts off the streets.

But 90 years since the Battle of Cable Street, pro-Israel Jewish groups have been branded ‘fascists’ and told they are not welcome at an anniversary march by hard-Left activists being held today.

Jewish Anti-Zionist Action, a group which says ‘there is no antifascism without anti-Zionism’, declared on Instagram that ‘fascists aren’t welcome at the antifascist march’.

The face of the campaign is Talia Woodin, 27, a former Extinction Rebellion co-ordinator who posted 'ding dong the witch is dead' when Queen Elizabeth died. Ms Woodin, who is Jewish, is the daughter of Mike Woodin, a former principal speaker of the Green Party.

Ahead of the anniversary event, she lashed out at the Board of Deputies of British Jews – a body representing the community, which has organised a ‘festival of Jewish culture’ to mark the occasion.

In a video posted online, Ms Woodin said the group could not claim the march as its own because it had warned Jewish Chronicle readers in 1936 to avoid Cable Street rather than stay and fight. Her group is part of a coalition of Left-wing organisations, including London Community Defence and Jewish Voice for Liberation, behind the campaign to stop pro-Isreal groups attending.

London Community Defence shared a photo of Nigel Farage with sniper crosshairs over his face on social media in May, captioned: 'For legal purposes, I think it would be a terrible idea to buss [sic] a cap in Nigel's ass.'

And Jewish Voice for Liberation recently condemned Leeds Minster for removing a Gaza tribute featuring Hamas terrorists' names.

A Metropolitan Police source last night suggested disorder is not expected at the march, but said spats between groups is always possible.

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Dani's on fire... but there's one saucy song she WON'T dance to on Strictly!

IT HAS echoed around the London Stadium, been sung by her father with his grandson in his arms and even had a polite rewrite by her son.

Now Dani Dyer wants to bring West Ham fans' notoriously crude tribute to her relationship with Hammers captain Jarrod Bowen to the Strictly Come Dancing ballroom.

Sung to the tune of Gala's 1996 hit Freed From Desire, the chant begins, ‘Bowen’s on fire’, before ending with the X-rated line: ‘And he’s s\*\*\*\*\* Dani Dyer.’

Asked if she would dance to the song on Strictly, Dani, 30, told The Mail on Sunday: 'Imagine! They wouldn't be able to play that. Unless they say "kissing Dani Dyer". Then maybe they could.'

Her professional partner Nikita Kuzmin, 28, added: 'As much as we would love to, with

By Olivia Kemp

SHOWBUSINESS REPORTER

the chant included, we probably couldn't. What a shame!'

Dani's son Santiago has already come up with a version suitable for the BBC. She revealed last year that he sings, ‘Bowen’s on fire and he’s kissing Dani Dyer’ from the back seat of her car.

But her father, actor and lifelong West Ham supporter Danny Dyer, 49, has made no such attempt to clean up the original.

Defending the chant as a compliment to his daughter, he has said: 'I think there's a bit of romance in it. Think about it, it's a compliment.

‘They are saying Bowen is on fire, which is unreal, and he’s also s\*\*\*\*\* Dani Dyer. They’re saying it can’t get any better.’

In April, he was filmed singing along during a West Ham FA Cup game at the London Stadium, with Santiago in his arms.

But he changed the lyrics at Dani and Jarrod's wedding last year, leading guests in a chorus declaring that the footballer had now ‘married Dani Dyer’.

Bowen, 29, was in the Strictly audience last night with his

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'They wouldn't be able to play that. Imagine!'

mother Natalie and sister Ella, as his wife performed a foxtrot to Beauty And The Beast.

Last night's show also saw Australian singer Delta Goodrem, 41, perform an American smooth to I'll Never Love Again from A Star Is Born, while

EastEnders actress Lacey Turner, 38, danced a Toy Story 5 quickstep and Melanie Walters, 64, waltzed to Edelweiss from The Sound Of Music.

Dani made her live debut last weekend with a samba to Zara Larsson's Lush Life, earning 22 points.

Her father and sister Sunnie, 19, were in the audience. Dyer's reaction to criticism from judge Craig Revel Horwood, 61, attracted almost as much attention as the performance.

Dani said: 'That's just him, isn't it? That is just my dad. He loved it, he really, really did. He was super-proud.

'He and my sister were so amazing. There was no one I could have wanted more than them in the audience. They're like my comfort blanket.'

Dani's return comes a year after her first attempt at Strictly ended after she fractured her ankle during rehearsals.

Asked if she feared another injury, she said: 'We're just going for it. My ankle is fine.'

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: Dani Dyer with Nikita Kuzmin on Strictly last night. Left: With sister Sunnie, father Danny and husband Jarrod

Kuzmin said the pair were taking precautions by strapping the joint and doing regular exercises, while Bowen, used to the demands of sporting recovery, has taken charge of his wife's treatment at home.

Dani said: ‘Jarrod bought this ice machine, so I get home and do all of that.’

Dani, who shares three-year-old twins Summer and Star with Bowen, said her family had rallied around her return.

But there was one question she refused to answer: whether she would rather lift the glitterball trophy or see her husband lead West Ham back into the Premier League: 'I can't answer that! I'm not doing that.'

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Battle royal: Even bedtime's a race in Tindall household

By Tara Russell

WITH a Rugby World Cup winner for a father and an Olympic medal-winning equestrian for a mother, the Tindall children were always going to have a steely streak of competitiveness.

And it seems that Mike and Zara Tindall are determined to put their youngsters – Mia, 12, Lena, eight, and five-year-old Lucas – through their paces, even when it comes to bedtime.

Mr Tindall, 47, told the Henley

Literature Festival: 'Even if it's just a race upstairs to bed, there will be ankle taps.

‘It might lead to a broken leg one day, but they will learn.

‘Hopefully the children will turn out like us.

‘And if they are as competitive as their mother, then we are all f\*\*\*\*d!' Ankle taps are an innocuous-sounding but formidable defensive tackling technique that Mr Tindall would frequently use on the rugby field.

This fighting spirit is something the I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! star says that he inherited from his father, Philip, who passed away two weeks ago after a 25-year battle with Parkinson's disease.

Mr Tindall grew up in a middle-class family in Yorkshire – his father was a Barclays bank manager – before going on to win 75 caps for England as a rugby union player. Appearing alongside

James Haskell and Alex Payne, his co-presenters on the podcast The Good, The Bad and The Rugby, Mr Tindall also addressed his journey from Wakefield to Windsor Castle.

He married Zara Phillips, Princess Anne's daughter, in 2011 in Edinburgh – and joked that his story could be made into a television series.

When asked about it on the podcast by Mr Haskell, he replied: 'It's the making of a great story isn't it?

'Waiting for Netflix on that one.'

To order your print of this or any other Mac cartoon, visit Mailpictures.newsprints.co.uk or call 0191 6030 178

'Phew! Working every day to reverse Brexit is exhausting. All I want to do now is relax and watch Traitors'

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Hijack pilot had been banned from flying over extremism fears

THE co-pilot who tried to hijack an Israel-bound Flydubai plane with an axe is a religious extremist who had once been barred from flying over his views.

Omani national Hamam Al Hammami, 29, severely wounded captain Smit Machchhar with the onboard emergency axe as he attempted to take control of the plane en route from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday.

He had previously been banned from flying over concerns about his extremist views after spending time in Isis-controlled Syria.

He was a trainee with Oman's national airline in 2024 but was grounded because of concerns he may have been influenced by radical groups, according to officials.

He was moved to an administrative job at Oman Air, and was later hired by the UAE-based airline Flydubai.

Last night it emerged that his LinkedIn account contained links to videos of al-Qaeda leaders and a series of clips appearing to show plans to target Israeli planes three years ago. The posts appeared

By Robert Folker

nine hours after Wednesday's attack, according to CNN.

The LinkedIn account has since been deleted.

After the attempted hijack, passengers and crew grappled with Al Hammami to regain control of the plane, which plummeted 14,000ft in just 29 seconds.

There were 174 on board, including 150 Israelis, as well as a crew of six.

Capt Machchhar was able to fight off his co-pilot and foil his attempts to sabotage the plane's systems. After the captain managed to open the cockpit door, Al Hammami was overpowered.

It is believed a British off-duty pilot helped land the plane.

Distressing footage showed the captain lying on the ground covered in blood as passengers tended to his injuries.

In a dramatic interview with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night, Capt Machchhar revealed that Al Hammami had prayed before the attack. 'The co-pilot wanted to pray,' he said. 'It wasn't out of the ordinary, and, out of respect, I was looking at the front. Then, after four of five minutes, there was a big blow to the back of my head.

PRAYED BEFORE ATTACK: Co-pilot Hamam Al Hammami

‘I did try to stop him but because of the blows, my vision was almost nothing. I was blurred out.’

It has been confirmed by a Gulf diplomat that Al Hammami had undergone standard security checks before being hired. Flydubai is conducting an internal investigation into his recruitment.

Royal Air Maroc confirmed that Al Hammami had undergone three months' training with the airline in 2025, but his application to work there afterwards was rejected.

He completed a three-year distance-learning course at Buckinghamshire New University and graduated with a degree in aviation management in 2023.

The United Arab Emirates, which is leading the investigation, is working to establish whether he acted as a ‘lone wolf or has any connection with any extremist groups’.

UAE attorney general Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said ‘the co-pilot had attempted to carry out a terrorist act’ and had ‘attacked the captain in the cockpit with the emergency axe and tried to take control of the aircraft’.

Al Hammami, who was transferred on Thursday to the UAE, is understood to be ‘co-operating’.

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UAE could pull billions in UK funds over Man City scandal

By Elizabeth Ivens

ANDY Burnham is facing a diplomatic headache as the United Arab Emirates threatens to pull billions of pounds of investment out of the UK over the Manchester City scandal.

With the UAE-owned club found guilty of one of the biggest financial scandals in footballing history, the Arab state is warning it could withdraw its backing for current and future projects in retaliation.

The UAE is believed to have invested £30billion-plus into British sectors, including life sciences, defence and technology in the past five years alone.

Without its funding, the flagging UK economy would suffer a blow at a time when the Prime Minister is desperate to boost it.

But Emirati officials said ‘the Premier League’s actions would have an influence on the

SCRUTINY: City chairman

Khaldoon Al Mubarak

bilateral state relationship', reports said yesterday.

This includes its hoped-for support for a hi-tech corridor between the key university cities of Oxford and Cambridge.

Senior Labour ministers are said to have courted the UAE for the estimated £10billion of investment the project needs.

Man City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak is also chief executive of Mubadala, one of the UAE's sovereign wealth funds, linked to the project. There are fears it could decline to fund it.

It has emerged that Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds met Mr Mubarak in Downing Street a fortnight before the guilty verdict.

The Department for Business and Trade claimed the two men discussed trade, defence and security – not the football club.

This week, Mr Burnham was criticised for saying he would be ‘really concerned’ if the UAE decided to sell Man City. A red-faced Downing Street said no team was ‘above the rules’.

Downing Street did not dispute reports that the guilty verdict had ‘undermined’ the UAE’s ‘appetite for future grand-scale UK commitments’.

---

Sir Ranulph 'drew up secret will on Everest trek after wife vetoed his plan to divorce her'

EXCLUSIVE

By Mark Hookham

ASSISTANT EDITOR INVESTIGATIONS

SIR Ranulph Fiennes drew up a secret will at Everest base camp after a major crisis in his marriage, it was claimed last night.

Michael Kobold, a friend of the explorer for 30 years, told The Mail on Sunday that Sir Ranulph wrote the document by hand in his tent the night before an unsuccessful bid to reach Everest's 29,000ft summit.

Sir Ranulph gave the sealed will to Mr Kobold, who still has it, in May 2008 with the instruction to open it in the event of his death.

In an exclusive interview, Mr Kobold, a German watch entrepreneur who lives in Switzerland, said that two months earlier, just before leaving the UK for Nepal, Sir Ranulph decided to divorce his second wife, Louise Millington-Cotes.

Sir Ranulph even asked Mr Kobold to find a law firm and public relations expert to handle the proceedings.

But it is claimed Mrs Millington-Cotes discovered the plan and a ‘much deflated’ Sir Ranulph changed his mind after she confronted him at their farm on Exmoor, Somerset.

Mr Kobold said last night: 'I don't know what's in the will and I promised Ran I wouldn't open it until he died.

‘I get emotional thinking about it because it was a difficult time for all of us. Ran was not happy with the situation.

‘I was there when he wrote it long-hand. I was there when he signed it. In Ran’s mind, this was a very bleak time in his life. Probably the darkest time, up until then, because he felt trapped.’

The extraordinary claim follows a storm of speculation about the whereabouts of the world's greatest living explorer, who was last seen in public two years ago.

Sir Ranulph, 82, who has Parkinson's disease, is said to have been shunted around a succession of care homes in London, Wales and Cheshire by Mrs Millington-Cotes, with his identity concealed under an alias, stopping his friends seeing him.

Mrs Millington-Cotes, a horse trainer from Cheshire, married Sir Ranulph in

NEWLYWEDS: Sir Ranulph with his wife, Louise Millington-Cotes, in 2005

2005 following the death of his first wife, Ginny, the previous year.

At one home, in London, she reportedly made visitors sign non-disclosure agreements, and at another, in Wales, where he was registered as Robert Millington, she allegedly gave instructions for him not to socialise with other residents.

Following an outcry from friends, who have called on the police and Office Of

---

'She shows up, kicks me out and slams the door shut'

The Public Guardian to investigate, Sir Ranulph is now believed to be back home at his isolated farm in Shropshire, which is hidden by a 6ft security gate.

Mr Kobold, who is publishing a book on Sir Ranulph's disappearance, stayed with the explorer and his wife for several weeks in 2008 and says he was appalled at the way that Mrs Millington-Cotes treated his friend.

‘Louise subjected Ran to a ceaseless barrage of attacks, always humiliating him in front of me and other people. It was heartbreaking,’ he said.

'I'll never forget the first night. I went to sleep feeling awful for Ran and was very sad. The next morning I woke up and thought that today things will be better. Well, that day was just as bad.

'The only time we had any peace from her was when we went on runs, which perhaps explains why they always took so long [two to three hours].'

Mr Kobold claims that Sir Ranulph told him of an incident in which Mrs Millington-Cotes took his passport and locked him out of the house where they were living in Cheshire.

Sir Ranulph is said to have been injured as he attempted to climb back in through a bathroom window.

Mr Kobold claims that over several weeks, during which he was acting as Sir Ranulph's de facto chauffeur, he persuaded the explorer to divorce his wife.

‘This was a firm decision and because Ran did not know how the mechanism works I was asked to basically organise everything around the divorce and manage it for him.’

Mr Kobold said he met a law firm in London and spoke over the phone to a PR specialist, because Sir Ranulph feared the divorce would ‘get ugly’ and he didn’t want to ‘be the next Paul McCartney’ – a reference to the acrimonious split of Sir Paul McCartney and his second wife, Heather Mills.

Sir Ranulph and Mr Kobold were due to discuss the plan at the explorer's office at Greenlands, his farm on Exmoor. But to Mr Kobold's surprise, Mrs Millington-Cotes arrived and insisted on talking to her husband alone.

‘She shows up, kicks me out, slams the door shut and spends ten minutes with Ran,’ Mr Kobold said.

‘Afterwards he says, “Mike, I’ve got bad news. Unfortunately I’m unable to move forward with the divorce.”’

Days later, after Mr Kobold arranged a new passport, Sir Ranulph flew to Nepal for his second attempt at climbing Everest. Mr Kobold, who joined him at base camp, had previously seen a copy of the explorer's will and does not know why he wrote a new document on the eve of launching his climb.

‘At base camp, for whatever reason, he created a new will. Something must have come into his mind. I just remember we were sitting in his tent and he wrote it out longhand and he signed it and he gave it to me.’

The legal status of the document is unclear because under English law,

FRIENDS: Michael Kobold, right, with Sir Ranulph in 2008, training for his Everest attempt

wills have to be signed by two witnesses. Mr Kobold said he may have signed the document, although he has no memory of doing so.

Sir Ranulph, then aged 65, was unable to reach the summit of Everest because of exhaustion, although he achieved the remarkable feat the following year, the oldest Briton to do so.

Mrs Millington-Cotes was approached for comment.

---

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By Katie Hind

CONSULTANT EDITOR

SHOWBUSINESS

IF YOU ask anyone who knows Amol Rajan, they will leave you in no doubt about how desperate he was to win Celebrity Traitors.

Ambitious and more than a touch arrogant, the second he signed for the momentous BBC reality show he had his eyes set on being crowned king of Ardross castle – and would trample on anyone to do so.

It was, too, a crucial plank of his plan to become a YouTuber extraordinaire after quitting his £320,000-a-year job as presenter of Radio 4's Today programme. Remaining on Traitors as long as possible was key to his success in going it alone.

But after he became the first celebrity to be murdered when traitors Richard E Grant and Maya Jama recruited comedian James Acaster instead of him, sources have revealed how that setback could be a ‘disaster’ for Rajan’s new venture.

He is already asking fans to subscribe to his new website The Amol Rajan Connection and its YouTube channel for up to

---

‘It is devastating for him, he will sink without trace’

£999 for a ‘top tier’ lifetime membership, including the ‘Pina Colada’ subscription which will include access to events.

Hoping to appeal to an audience younger than Today listeners, Rajan, 43, is promoting it on TikTok. 'It was all perfectly lined up by Amol, who is a very clever guy who doesn't miss a trick,' says an associate of the University Challenge host.

'He signed for Traitors, left the BBC and started putting his YouTube project out there. It should have all been so good but he lasted just one episode. glass

---

Whoops! Has clever clogs Amol's early murder sent his dream of social media riches down the YouTube?

RIVALS: Rajan with James Acaster. Above, his YouTube club invitation

‘It has screwed the plan and it is devastating for him.

‘He will sink without trace, the first person to be kicked off always does on these programmes.

‘There are a lot of people who have worked with Amol over the years who are having a little giggle at his early exit.’

Along with this YouTube offering, Rajan has trademarked his name for a range of goods which could see everything from sunglasses – he is often pictured in aviators – to clothes and even cookware flooding shop shelves.

He applied in late July to trademark his company The Amol Rajan Connection with specific clauses to cover eyewear and kitchenware, including glass, porcelain and earthenware.

He has also announced a ‘strategic partnership’ with Waitrose.

It said new content on LinkedIn, TikTok, Threads, Instagram and YouTube Shorts would focus on 'crucial topics including sustainability, quality and British farming'.

Following his Traitors exit, Rajan, formerly editor of The Independent newspaper, told how it was ‘gutting’ for him to go first and he was ‘grieving’.

Yesterday, talking to his former colleague Simon Jack on Today, he insisted that it was not only him who had been suspicious of actor Grant, which led to Rajan being summoned by Grant and Maya Jama and then murdered. But the show's edit made it look as if he was Grant's main challenger.

‘If there is a tactic which is generally effective then you should stay schtum,’ he said.

‘There were lots of people who were having a go at Richard as you can imagine,’ he added.

‘We all had a go at him because he said he was a traitor which has never happened before and a completely ludicrous thing to do.

'So it wasn't just me doing it. There were other people asking hard questions too but my strategy got me this close to becoming a traitor which I'd have loved.'

He also revealed he had since had lunch with Grant who apologised for murdering him, saying he went ‘completely mad’.

He also said the comedians in the show have an advantage because they know one another.

‘Rob and Romesh know one another very well,’ he said. ‘They are better at reading the other people if they know them well.’

FRINGE BENEFITS: Stylist Sinead

McKeefry and Claudia Winkleman

By Tara Russell

---

Claudia's stylist cashes in – with her ‘round table glow-up bag’

CLAUDIA Winkleman's stylist Sinead McKeefry is cashing in on the star's gothic glamour look on Celebrity Traitors by landing several big money deals.

One is for a ‘round table glam make-up bag’ from Superdrug which can recreate Winkleman’s hair and make-up.

Fans buying the £21.35 set curated by McKeefry get midnight black pencil eyeliner, a black eye shadow stick, a black temporary hair spray and a nude lip cream.

To ensure it arrives in time to have that Winkleman look while the show's popularity is peaking, it is being delivered by takeaway company Just Eat.

McKeefry said: 'We've curated these bundles so fans can instantly step into the ultimate

presenter persona, from a heavy kohl gaze to that trademark glossy fringe.'

McKeefry, who previously worked for Holly Willoughby and Amanda Holden, has launched multiple collaborations with beauty and fashion brands themed around Traitors.

The BBC have rules which prevent stars, or those who work with them, from cashing in on shows with commercial hook-ups.

Bosses may have turned a blind eye to McKeefry as Traitors and its celebrity version are made by production company Studio Lambert. McKeefry also has deals with George at Asda, FatFace, Next and Boden.

She has boasted that her Asda collection features classic tweed and tartan items, and she says: 'I'll always use them in my styling for Claudia for Traitors.'

The collection includes brown knee-high riding boots priced at £28, a mustard and burgundy tartan co-ord costing £18 and a brown faux fur jacket for £45.

On Thursday, FatFace promoted their collection with

McKeefry in a video following a woman dressed like Winkleman walking in castle grounds.

In their stores, mannequins were dressed like the star, with black wigs featuring Winkleman's thick block fringe.

McKeefry also signed a deal with upmarket clothing company Boden to release a range inspired by Winkleman's look.

On Boden's Instagram, it said last week: 'We can't believe it's almost October. Here's a sneak peek of what's launching tomorrow (fans of tartan rejoice).'

A-LISTER: Maya at the Louboutin show during Paris Fashion Week

---

The OTHER secret: that Traitor Maya is hiding from the Faithfuls: her split from Man City star

ON SCREEN, TV presenter Maya Jama seems the glowing picture of confidence as she takes on the ultimate game of deception in Celebrity Traitors.

Tapped on the shoulder by host Claudia Winkleman, she was made a traitor and has revelled in it alongside actor Richard E Grant.

But what viewers of the BBC game don't know is that behind the scenes Maya was quietly dealing with the end of her 18-month relationship with top footballer Ruben Dias.

Celebrity Traitors began filming in May – just days after Maya and Manchester City's Portuguese defender Dias, 29, decided to call time on their relationship.

So far in the series the 32-year-old presenter has not mentioned the split to her co-stars at Ardross castle in the Highlands.

Celebrity Traitors, though, was the tonic she needed and she was able to laugh again as she found herself in the company of Grant, her friend Leigh-Anne Pinnock, singer James Blunt and comedian Romesh Ranganathan.

One source said: ‘Filming Celebrity Traitors came at the perfect time for Maya. It put a smile back on her face.

‘While her split from Ruben was amicable, there was still a lot

EXCLUSIVE

By Codie Bullen

SENIOR SHOWBIZ REPORTER

of love between them, so it was tough. At the time, they had a shared home but being away meant she could escape it all. Throwing herself into work was the perfect distraction.'

As well as the hilarious company on the show, the phone ban and a enforced social media detox forced on the contestants also helped Maya to move forward after the split.

A friend of hers said: 'When news of their break-up emerged, rumours began circulating that Dias had been sending late night social media "follow" requests to female influencers but Maya didn't have to see any of that.'

CLAUDIA Winkleman has led a charm offensive to win over families in Ardross upset by traffic congestion following the Celebrity Traitors invasion.

One resident said: 'Claudia was the talk of the area after she visited a primary school.

'She spoke to the children about working in TV. The kids were young and many of them

Maya was thrilled when she was chosen as a Traitor alongside Grant and they have been joined by comedian and presenter James Acaster.

Just two episodes in, she is already a hit with viewers with her sharp wit, impeccable style and mischievous charm.

And Maya – who can also be seen playing Aisha in Guy Ritchie's Netflix series The Gentlemen – is enjoying the high profile Celebrity Traitors brings.

As almost 8.6 million watched her in Friday night's episode, she was making a glamorous appearance during Paris Fashion Week.

Maya wore a stylish black and white midi dress to attend the star-studded Christian Louboutin show, completing the look with snakeskin heels from the designer brand as she took her seat alongside A-listers including

COVER-UP: Maya on Celebrity Traitors, hiding the heartache of her split with Ruben Dias, above

didn't know who she was, but when they got home and told their parents about the “woman with the fringe visiting”, they were starstruck.

‘Since then, locals have been fond of Claudia and can see she has a passion for the area.’

Winkleman told a press conference she plans to return for a family summer holiday.

Heidi Klum and Cynthia Erivo. A friend of Bristolian Maya's said: 'She's firmly in the spotlight, where she belongs.'

Sources say she is already being inundated with fantastic work offers and is excited to throw herself into her next chapter. 'While she was in the castle, she took loads of scripts for potential roles. It kept her busy during their downtime at the hotel,' said the source.

‘It is a very exciting time for Maya and with being picked as a Traitor and having a large portion of airtime, it could open a lot of doors. She would love to pursue more acting off the back of The Gentlemen. She’s a busy woman but she’s about to get a whole lot busier.’

She dated rapper Stormzy for four years before a 2019 split. They reunited in 2023 but ended their relationship the next year.

Maya, whose first major gig was co-presenting Saturday night show Cannonball with Freddie Flintoff in 2017, began hosting ITV's dating show Love Island in 2023.

‘She is a grafter,’ said a source who worked with her for years. ‘She makes the most of anything thrown at her and starring on Traitors will catapult her to a place she never dreamed of.’

P

OLICE cars, ambulances and buses are all at risk of being remotely sabotaged by China because of Britain's over-dependence on the country's electric vehicle technology, security sources have told The Mail on Sunday.

China's potential ability to control the vehicles at the flick of a switch has emerged amid growing concerns in the intelligence agencies over the Government's softly-softly approach to Beijing.

The threat to the vehicles comes from ‘kill switches’ built into Chinese-made components found in electric vehicles (EVs), transport networks, hospitals, the power grid and renewable technologies such as solar panels.

The Metropolitan Police alone operates 1,600 electric and hybrid vehicles powered by lithium batteries that include Chinese cellular devices, which connect the cars to mobile communication networks.

Without concerted preventative action, the technology offers ‘remote actors’ the ability to access a vehicle’s electronics to cause it to stop or crash.

For this reason, Whitehall sources have told the MoS that emergency vehicles that rely on Chinese technology

---

'They could crash HGVs to block roads and bridges'

have been stripped down and effectively rebuilt to remove Beijing's capacity for remote sabotage.

The drastic sweep for Chinese components comes as:

\- Kill switches have been found in solar panel and wind turbine connectors, raising fears of national blackouts

\- Security experts warn that driverless cars can be hacked, ahead of Uber's planned roll-out next year

● MI5 warns that 100 academics at UK universities have unwittingly aided Chinese intelligence

In 2022, a forensic sweep of a hybrid car used by the three prime ministers who served that year found a tracking device, which was suspected of sending data back to China.

China's share of the British car market has boomed, doubling in the past year alone to nearly one in five of all new cars sold.

The kill switches have also been discovered in power ‘inverters’ used to connect solar panels and wind turbines to the electricity grid. The parts were not included in any of the plans given to engineers installing the equipment, and were only found when security experts examined energy equipment and compared the parts to the official documents provided by the manufacturer.

Kill switches have also been found in the Yutong electric buses operating on British roads.

The Norwegian bus company Ruter, which first discovered the kill switch, found that the buses contained a Sim card, which connected to a Romanian provider.

This is to remotely monitor the battery to keep it from overheating, but a single software update from a different country would be sufficient to disable the vehicles.

The Chinese chips are so complex that experts say that disabling the Sim cards might not be enough to prevent the vehicles

---

As MI5 warns British universities have been infiltrated by Beijing's spies, security sources tell MoS... With the flick of a switch, China could disable our police cars, buses and ambulances

SPECIAL REPORT

By GLEN OWEN and

GABRIEL MILLARD-CLOTHIER

from being ‘killed’. Despite this, more Chinese-made buses have been ordered by the Department for Transport – against the wishes of security experts.

Concerns have also been raised about electric vans and lorries, with one source saying: 'If China gets into electric vans and HGVs it poses a serious threat. They

---

'Ministers are new and don't understand tech'

could switch them off, crash them, block roads or bridges. They would have control of our entire logistics network.'

China's EV makers, like all ostensibly ‘private’ firms in the country, work under the Chinese Communist Party's National Intelligence Laws requiring organisations and individuals to ‘support, assist and cooperate with state intelligence work’. Little wonder that Uber's plans to launch driverless taxis in

London next year – in partnership with Chinese tech giant Baidu – has alarmed experts, who fear the infotainment systems could easily be hacked by foreign agents.

Driverless vehicles in San Francisco were halted during a recent city-wide power failure, leading to blocked roads.

It follows the revelation in this newspaper last month that Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband was regarded with suspicion by Whitehall security officials over his doveish approach to Beijing.

One source accused Mr Miliband – who pledged to go ‘further and faster’ on replacing gas and oil with renewable sources such as solar power while in his previous job as Energy Secretary – of ‘appeasing’ China.

This is despite the risks it poses to British security because the UK is so reliant on Beijing for the supply of solar panels, with two-thirds of our stock coming from China.

John Hemmings, the inaugural Director for the National Security Centre at the Henry Jackson Society, said the so-called 'Made in

China' hacking strategy had been driven by the certification of Chinese universities as ‘world-class cyber-security schools’.

The strategy focuses on embedding secret components into Chinese electronics to bypass firewalls and establish a direct back-channel to Beijing's battalions of state-backed hackers.

The hacking is the result of more than a decade of investment by China's president Xi Jinping, including state-sponsored 'hacking competitions, which has led to the creation of more than 30,000 new cyber-security experts each year.

Dr Hemmings criticised the ‘wet’ attitude of the UK Government to the Chinese threat, saying: ‘Even the EU is taking a more robust approach to Beijing than we are, which tells its own story.’

In March, the EU froze the assets of the China-based Integrity

---

'The NHS is the UK's softest underbelly'

Technology Group and Anxun Information Technology in response to claims it had been involved in hacking critical infrastructure across the bloc. It has also drafted legislation to exclude Beijing-linked companies such as Huawei from sensitive projects.

In contrast, a security source said the Government is struggling to catch-up. 'These are all pretty new ministers who change on a regular basis,' the source said. 'And most of them don't understand the science and tech. Even inside the civil service it's a mess.

‘Abolishing the science and technology department and putting it into trade means they have not got their eye on the ball. There’s a couple of people looking at this but their minds are elsewhere. At every level this issue is slipping through the cracks.’

But ideology matters, too.

‘There’s a belief in Government that growth can only come from Chinese trade and investment,’ said the source. ‘That is definitely Ed Miliband’s view. He signed a deal with China and didn’t tell anyone until a year later.

‘Ministers need their noses rubbed in it to stop them crapping all over the pavement.’

MI5's warning last week about British academics was the first time the service has independently published a so-called ‘Espionage Alert’ – it is usually done under the direction of the Government.

It said that Chinese intelligence had tried to ‘covertly benefit’ from British AI and technology research after the academics contributed to projects funded by the China General Technology Research Institute, which it said has ‘very strong ties’ to China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), because its ‘primary purpose was to fund academic research that directly improved the MSS's technical capabilities for espionage'.

UK cyber-security experts also warn that China has the ability to shut down hospitals. The NHS has been regarded as the country's 'softest underbelly' because of its antiquated IT systems – which are now being updated frantically to counter the threat. Chinese agents attack and test the hospital systems on a regular basis.

The most audacious recent example of Chinese hacking was an operation codenamed Salt Typhoon, when aides close to former prime ministers Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak had their private calls tracked and text messages intercepted.

The state-backed group APT31, acting on behalf of China's MSS, also gained access to the servers of the Electoral Commission, exposing the personal details of roughly 40 million voters. APT31 has also targeted members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China – a coalition of China-sceptic MPs and peers.

In April, the National Cyber Security Centre warned that Chinese state actors are building vast ‘covert networks’ by hijacking household items and office routers to

SINISTER: China's President Xi Jinping, left, could control UK vehicles from Beijing, it is feared

'burrow' into vital infrastructure. Last year, it was reported that the Ministry of Defence had banned electric vehicles with Chinese components from military bases.

Staff working at RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire and the Salisbury Plain training area were told they must park the vehicles at least two miles away from key buildings in case sensors in the cars collected intelligence and sent it to Beijing.

RAF Wyton houses officials from Five Eyes, the intelligence-sharing alliance formed by the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Defence minister Lord Coaker said at the time: 'We are aware that individual defence organisations may have stricter requirements relating to electric vehicles on some sites, but we do not provide specific details for security reasons.'

Personnel have also been advised not to hold conversations in electric cars in case they are bugged. The Five Eyes alliance issued a warning in the summer that Chinese military intelligence was targeting professional networking sites and online job platforms to obtain sensitive information.

One of Mr Miliband's first moves after he moved to the Foreign Office in the summer was to arrange to meet Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi. Many senior members of the UK's diplomatic and intelligence community regard Mr Miliband as ‘weak’ on the

security threat posed by the country. Mr Miliband supports building closer ties with Beijing – because, they suspect, the regime is so central to his zealously advocated Net Zero goals.

A National Police Chiefs Council spokesman said: 'UK policing follows Government guidance on protecting all our infrastructure, including vehicles.

‘Any assessment of national security risks relating to vehicle technology, telecommunications or overseas supply chains is a matter for Government and the national security authorities.’

---

This isn't paranoia. Xi Jinping has put a pistol on the table

COMMENT

By TOM

TUGENDHAT

SHADOW FOREIGN

SECRETARY

WHEN was the last time you stripped a car to find out what made it work? You can do it with an old Land Rover, but modern vehicles hide more than just spark plugs under the bonnet.

Some of the Chinese-made parts are constantly talking to Beijing, and the implications for national security should worry the Government far more than they do. I know this sounds like we're back in the 1950s, but this isn't paranoia, it is engineering.

The Met Police's 1,600 electric and hybrid vehicles run on Chinese batteries and cellular modules. Buses built by Chinese manufacturer BYD have a

satnav and phone signal device. Each connection updates the software and controls the electronic engine.

And you can't switch them off. Norway's bus company Ruter parked a new Chinese Yutong bus deep underground in a disused mine where no outside signal could reach it. When they took a good look inside, the battery and power controls were still trying to communicate with Beijing.

And the software updates aren't optional. Errors in code and

changes in systems mean keeping the battery working and stopping it overheating and catching fire is a full-time job. The updates are part of the maintenance. They're also part of the architecture of Chinese control.

The truth is Chinese trade isn't just about sales, it's used to create dependency and knock out competition.

But so what? What's the worst that can happen?

Well, just imagine this. Rush-hour roads and bridges blocked by buses that won't move and cars that won't start. Our entire logistics network closed down and our solar farms drop off the grid. We saw a glimpse of this in San Francisco, when a power cut left driverless taxis stopped dead across junctions. Now Uber is working with China's Baidu to bring the same vehicles to London.

Would Xi Jinping dare? He's already targeting us hard. In a crisis over Taiwan he might go further. And even if he doesn't, he's put a pistol on the table and in any negotiation, it's hard to ignore it.

A government that knows its police cars, ambulances and more can be killed from abroad will think twice before speaking up for itself. So what has Whitehall done? Ordered Chinese-made BYD buses for London, of course.

That's where green zealotry leads you. Uninterested ministers must realise that trade and defence aren't separate, they're the same conversation, and we have gone quiet.

That's where Ed Miliband threatens us all. His evangelical obsession with an agenda that sees us not just poorer but vulnerable to foreign attack leaves me wondering if we're already prisoners of tomorrow's technology. We don't have to be.

I know what quick wins really cost. We can't afford to wait any longer. A country that can't trust its own police cars isn't secure.

A Government that won't even look under the bonnet isn't serious.

---

Boy, 15, held for burning woman with makeshift flame-thrower in riots

ON PATROL: Riot police confront protesters outside a school

FRENCH police have arrested a 15-year-old rioter after he used a makeshift flame-thrower to burn a woman's face.

The attack was captured on video

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as thousands of youngsters went on the rampage over poor conditions in their schools.

The pupil – who has not been named – could now face charges of ‘intentional violence’ aggravated by ‘the use of a weapon, concealing his face and attacking in a gang’, a source said.

In footage taken on Friday in Marseille, the victim appears to have been shoved against a bus stop after she called for an end to the vandalism. But as she recovers, a hooded individual walks forward and, using an aerosol can and a lighter, launches a burst of flame at her.

She received medical treatment at the scene and it was reported in Le Parisien that she had suffered first-degree burns.

A police spokesman said: 'The suspect was arrested and taken into police custody Friday evening.'

Meanwhile in Bordeaux, a firefighter was filmed catching alight while attempting to put out a fire caused by protesters.

They are the latest shocking scenes during a week of rioting across France where masses of public property, from schools to bus stops, have been set on fire and teachers ‘doused in petrol’.

Videos posted online have shown riot police using teargas and baton charges to fight back. There were almost 4,000 arrests over Thursday and Friday alone with at least 500 colleges caught up in the uprising.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez condemned ‘an escalation of violence’ adding that most of those taken into custody for a range of public order offences were aged between 15 and 18.

President Emmanuel Macron has accused extremists of stirring up the trouble. Calling for calm during a speech in Madrid, he said: 'I can hear... the anxieties and anger that our youth can feel. However, none of these fears legitimise violence.'

Benoit Payan, the Leftist mayor of Marseille, said: 'Our youth is legitimately concerned about its future and that of the public service. It must be able to express itself in a calm framework. I call for calm from each and every one.'

And yesterday French education minister Edouard Geffray called

ON VIDEO: Bally Bagayoko

A MAYOR has been accused of supporting French rioters after he was filmed laughing and dancing with them outside a blocked-off school.

Footage showed Bally Bagayoko being cheered on by pupils while flames rose from a burning bin near the building's gates behind him.

It is also alleged Mr Bagayoko – mayor of Paris’s St Denis suburb – said ‘violence can be legitimate’ when a teenager is faced with police firing rubber bullets and using teargas.

The Paris Police Prefecture has filed a complaint against him for ‘incitement to commit a crime’. Mr Bagayoko is a member of the hard-Left party France Unbowed. Other members have been seen outside blockaded buildings, with Emmanuel Macron accusing ‘political leaders’ of trying ‘to whip up the pupils’.

for classes to be held remotely at schools where blockades are taking place.

Mr Macron's administration has just announced a series of deeply unpopular spending cuts in its 2027 budget, including less money for schools and colleges.

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Tourist killed in lightning strike

A HOLIDAYMAKER was killed in front of her husband when she was struck by lightning on a beach on the Greek island of Rhodes.

The German couple had arrived days earlier and are understood to have been swimming shortly before the strike at Lothiarika, near Lardos.

Paramedics took the woman to Archangelos Health Centre but the

58-year-old was declared dead on arrival. Her husband, 62, suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene following the strike, which took place on Friday.

Greek authorities are investigating the precise circumstances. A fresh severe weather warning for the southern Aegean sea was issued by the Civil Protection Ministry.

As new Bake Off queen is pictured on a rare night out with author pal Jeanette Winterson

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INSIDE SHOWBIZ! By Katie Hind

CONSULTANT EDITOR

SHOWBUSINESS

A T ONE time she had a reputation as the ultimate social butterfly, rarely out of the Groucho Club when the celebrity hangout's reputation for louche hedonism was at its peak.

For years the undisputed star of every guest list in London, Nigella Lawson appeared to revel – albeit with her characteristic coquettishness – in her role as a celebrated girl about town. The glamorous TV chef and food writer would happily pose for photographs and the pictures would fly into newspaper gossip columns.

But that era is long over for the 66-year-old, who has just returned to our screens after a long hiatus, as a judge on The Great British Bake Off. In fact, those who know Nigella say she is now unlikely to go anywhere if there is a chance she will be thrust into the limelight.

‘It’s rare you’ll see Nigella in public,’ says one associate. ‘She used to be a social butterfly but all of that has changed. She lives a

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‘She was very sociable – but then Charles happened. It scarred her’

very quiet life, around people who she trusts implicitly.'

Last week, a rare sighting of Nigella was a case in point.

She had enjoyed a night out with her long-standing friend Jeanette Winterson, the 67-year-old author of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit – an autobiographical novel about growing up as a lesbian. And the two women shared a hug in Chelsea, west London, close to Nigella's home.

Sources say they had dined together nearby. Nigella was dressed in an understated navy trouser suit and trainers – quite the contrast to the brighter wardrobe she previously favoured.

Those familiar with Nigella say it was a ‘typically quiet and tame night out’.

An onlooker added: ‘Nigella looked happy – she looked like she was enjoying herself. It was lovely to see her smiling off screen.’

The women have known each other for more than a decade.

In 2018, Jeanette wrote the introduction for the 20th anniversary edition of the Nigella Bites cook-

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Cocaine, that shocking Saatchi snap... and why Nigella's wild partying is well and truly over

book, praising it as a ‘practical philosophy of life and pleasure rather than a rigid instruction manual’. The previous year they had appeared together at the Manchester Literary Festival, and in 2011 Jeanette contributed to an issue of Stylist magazine which Nigella guest-edited. Jeanette also narrated the audiobook version of Nigella’s How To Eat.

CLICK NEWS AND MEDIA/CHANNEL 4

But her outing with Jeanette last week showed what is now a rarely seen sociable side. Even at the launch event for Bake Off, she spared little time to mingle. While her co-stars Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding worked the room, Nigella, flanked by her publicist, left immediately after the Q&A that followed the screening.

It is not clear what has transformed Nigella into what some say is a more reclusive figure today.

A CHANGED WOMAN: Nigella on Bake Off with Paul Hollywood, and left, after dinner with Winterson

However, those who have known her over the years suggest that it has been influenced, at least in part, by the now-infamous events that took place outside Mayfair restaurant Scott's in 2013.

Photographs emerged of Nigella's now ex-husband, the art dealer Charles Saatchi, gripping her around the throat several times as they argued over lunch. She appeared distressed and tearful.

I remember how shocking those pictures were, and the moment I first saw them when they were sold to the Sunday newspaper where I worked at the time.

It was immediately clear that they would make headlines around the world.

It was a seismic moment for Nigella, who had married Saatchi a decade previously following the 2001 death of her first husband John Diamond, the journalist and father of her two children.

Saatchi said the incident was a ‘playful tiff’, but he accepted a police caution for assault, and the couple announced the following month they were divorcing.

‘She was terrified,’ says a source. ‘But for the whole world to see her like that was just devastating. Nigella was sociable and coquet-tish – not just on-screen but off it, too – but then Charles happened, the incident happened, and it all changed for her. It scarred her.'

More scandal was to come during the fraud trial of two sisters, Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo, who worked as personal assistants for Nigella and Saatchi and had been accused of using company credit cards to buy £685,000 worth of luxury goods.

The siblings claimed that Nigella had allowed the spending to cover up her cocaine use. Nigella told the court she had used drugs to mask her unhappiness – making ‘an intolerable situation tolerable’ – but denied being an addict or having a drug problem.

The sisters were subsequently found not guilty.

But the fallout from the case helped prompt a withdrawal from the London party scene where Nigella had once been such a prominent fixture, and marked the beginning of a virtual absence from British television. Despite becoming one of the nation's most sought-after TV chefs thanks to hits such as How To Eat and How To Be A Domestic Goddess, she spent much of her life abroad in the wake of her divorce.

She became a judge on cooking shows in the US and Australia, before her 2020 Cook, Eat, Repeat on BBC Two. Bake Off marks her first regular slot on British TV since then – although she admitted she had a ‘long list of reasons’ to turn it down, including the fact that she does not consider herself a ‘technical baker’.

But just two episodes in, and she has proved a huge hit with fans. Alison has described her as ‘an icon’, and she has won praise for arguing against Paul Hollywood for calling food ‘naughty’ and for eating large chunks of cake.

Just don't expect her to be back on the party circuit any time soon.

Friends suggest ‘she needed some time away from fame’ to ‘mend herself’, with one friend saying the Saatchi incident ‘broke her – living a quiet life is how Nigella likes it now’.

OCTOBER 7 MASSACRE: THREE YEARS ON

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The brave Gazans daring schools that teach their of Israelis'... even in so-

E

VEN amid the atrocities of October 7 it stood out as a fleeting moment of chilling horror: a child revelling in the kidnapping and murder of a young woman.

The boy in a red and white T-shirt was among the ordinary crowds in

Gaza gleefully celebrating as her lifeless, half-naked, bloodied body was paraded on the back of a pick-up truck.

This was 22-year-old Shani Louk, who was one of hundreds of men and women murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the Nova music festival. Her family were able to recognise her mangled body from the distinctive tattoos on her legs and her long braids.

The crowd gathered around the truck, beating with their fists on the bodies of this young woman and those of other victims, jeering.

Then the boy in the red and white T-shirt, who looked barely into his teenage years, leaned into the truck and spat on Shani's corpse. Anyone watching could not help but ask: how could a child come to act with such inhumane cruelty?

It is the question on which the future of Gaza and any hope of peace in the region turns.

There is all too much evidence of how the extremism of Hamas – the proscribed terror group that has been in power for almost 20 years – has captured entire generations, brainwashing them into an extremist ideology that metes out violence, hatred and death.

Worse still, it has done this on the back of British taxpayers' generosity, as over the past two decades hundreds of millions of pounds have flowed from UK governments to the UN body running many of Hamas's schools.

SPECIAL

REPORT

From NATALIE

LISBONA

Now an investigation by The Mail on S has revealed how Hamas, since it gained control of Gaza in 2007, has

MIDDLE EAST

CORRESPONDENT

IN JERUSALEM

HAUNTING IMAGE: Vlada Patapov fleeing the October 7 attack at the Nova festival

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'Under Hamas, it is a curriculum of terrorism'

devoted its education system to indoctrinating children into its jihadist creed.

Ordinary Gazans have bravely told of the capture of schools, culture and family entertainment venues by Hamas, and how the ‘culture of death’ has damaged Palestinian society, with children the biggest victims.

Some are now speaking out, at huge personal risk, warning that the space for independent education is disappearing and appealing for help before it is too late for another generation of children.

Ever since it took power, Hamas has sought to brainwash the minds of the young, through military summer camps, schools and mosques, and its pernicious grip over life in the territory.

Shireen (not her real name) is a 29-year-old mother of two who spoke to the MoS from inside Gaza at great risk to herself, describing how she watched the territory change after Hamas seized power and how, years later, she became terrified that the same ideology was reaching into her own home.

The moment that frightened her most came when her son returned from studying at a mosque.

‘Under Hamas, it became a curriculum of terrorism. They teach them terrorism, killing and the path of death. There is extreme racism and they teach them how to kill and how to fight Jews.

‘We send children to the mosque to learn religion and the Koran and to become closer to Almighty God. I was shocked our children would come back from the mosque knowing about how to die.’

Then came the words from her own young son that left her horrified. 'He told me, "When I become a martyr, I will receive houris [an Islamic description of paradise]."

‘He was not even ten. I wondered how a child his age could have these things in his mind.’

Horrified, Shireen began teaching him at home. 'I don't want him going to the mosque and having ideas about terrorism, death and killing put into his head – how to fight and how to enter paradise.'

But Shireen says another family living nearby had already experienced the nightmare she feared for her own child.

‘Our neighbour’s son was 15. He used to go to the mosque for his education. He was very religious.’

The family lived in eastern Gaza, close to the boundary with Israel. Palestinian militant groups often encourage people to approach or cross it and, according to Shireen, the teenager was given a weapon and headed towards the border to target Israeli guards.

‘He was killed,’ she says sadly. An Israeli soldier shot him. It is a senseless fate.

Elsewhere, Amin Abed, 40, bears the scars of the terror group's indoctrination of school children. He fled Gaza for the UAE after members of the terror militia beat him. Amin witnessed how the educational system was captured by the group's extremist ideology.

He says: 'When Hamas came to power, the same curriculum continued, while the teaching process gradually began to be adapted to Hamas's ideas, extremism and organisational ideology.'

In 2012/13, Gaza's Hamas-run authorities introduced Al-Futuwwa – translated as ‘youth’ or ‘young manhood’ – into government high schools, giving teenage boys weekly military-style instruction alongside their studies.

The Guardian reported at the time that some 37,000 boys aged 15 to 17 took part in weekly classes involving instructors from the Hamas-controlled security services, with pupils familiarised with Kalashnikov rifles, explosives and other weapons.

It was supplemented by voluntary camps where boys received further weapons training.

Hamas officials defended the scheme as educational and disciplinary, while a Gaza-based human rights group warned it was fostering a ‘military culture’.

Amin says: 'The central message of this Al-Futuwwa programme was that “death is our highest aspiration in Gaza.”'

He says that through this core belief, Hamas created a broad segment of society that glorified and sanctified death, the outcome being people whose main focus became jihad, fighting and killing Jews.

‘These programmes became mandatory in schools, and even Hamas’s interior minister would intervene to impose these

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'Had his head filled with hateful rhetoric'

curricula and this mentality,' Amin tells The Mail on Sunday.

'A close friend was recruited by Hamas and had his head filled with hate-filled rhetoric to the point that, in 2007, he shot his own father, claiming that he was fighting disbelief and tyranny, because his father opposed Hamas.'

Hamza Howidy, 28, who fled

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to condemn Palestinian children to 'slit the throats called grammar lessons

IMPACT-se

EXPOSED: Children in a Hamas training facility. Right: A Palestinian textbook speaks of Zionist occupation

Gaza after being tortured for opposing Hamas, says he experienced the group's influence on education first-hand.

The Hamas-run school he attended was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the terror group's spiritual leader.

to the school, Hamza's parents decided to pull him out. But, he says, the hate-filled curriculum was no better when he later attended the Islamic University of Gaza.

The radicalisation of a generation can come as little surprise to anyone who has read Palestinian school textbooks.

A Grade 8 Arabic textbook, for instance, teaches reading, grammar and vocabulary through a passage describing suicide bombers wearing ‘explosive belts’ and daggers slashing Israelis’ throats. It also urges pupils not to forget the image of burned Jews.

Another textbook, this time a Grade 5 tome on Islamic Education, features a chapter on the religion's early female defenders. It recounts a woman stabbing a Jewish man to death يُمْدَ هُرِّىة عَام أَفْب وَجِنْشِيْتِ وَسْتَهُ وَجِنْتُ، وَالحَجَالِ الْطَّعَةِ الْقَرْكَةٍ

When Israeli tanks came close and instructs pupils to ‘emulate’ her and other women’s stories.

Hamza says that, even as a child, he felt there was something abnormal about it. 'On one side of us were Hamas training camps and on the other was the Israeli border. People would walk around the school with guns.'

‘We were taught Islamic education – the worst kind,’ says Hamza. ‘In the mornings we would sing Islamic songs. Hostility towards Israel was the norm and so was the idea of “resistance”.

These examples and many others were revealed by Israeli based NGO, IMPACT-se (The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education).

‘The teachers were radical and anything secular was banned. We used to sing “Jihad is our path, death is our dream”.’

Its devastating reports heavily criticised the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) – which ran hundreds of schools for 300,000 children before the war – for turning a blind eye to radicalisation and naked anti-Semitism in the education system.

What was worse is that they were doing it on the back of funding from Britain and the West.

The last Conservative government – along with the US, Italy, Canada and Australia – suspended funding of UNRWA as allegations emerged that a dozen of its employees participated in the October 7 attack.

Barely a month after winning the General Election, Labour ended the suspension by pledging £21 million to the controversial UN body.

Marcus Sheff, CEO of IMPACT-se, said: 'On October 7, 2023, graduates of this education system put into practice many of the messages they had encountered in the classroom and committed horrific acts.

‘The textbooks at the heart of this indoctrination are published by the Palestinian Authority, and the fact that Hamas has chosen to use them in its schools year after year illustrates exactly how dangerous they are.

‘Anyone interested in a peaceful future in the region must demand comprehensive reform of the Palestinian curriculum. Anything less risks laying the foundations for another October 7.’

Noor (not her real name) is an educator from Gaza who told this newspaper it was ‘extremely painful’ to watch Hamas undermine genuine attempts to educate children.

She worked with SOS Children's Villages Palestine, which runs education programmes in Gaza, but says its work has been dramatically curtailed under pressure from Hamas.

‘There are many teachers who cannot, or are unable to, teach because of Hamas’s pressure,’ she said.

‘The result isn’t only that people lose their jobs. The more serious result is that the space for independent education is shrinking, while a school teaching around 130 displaced children from nursery to seventh grade.

education is shrinking, while Hamas's control over schools and over the way our children are educated is increasing.'

‘We want to create a generation of learners, not terrorists,’ a senior member of Abu Shabab’s forces told The Times of Israel.

Yet amid the destruction, some Gazans have been trying, at considerable risk to their own safety, to take matters into their own hands.

Fearing what years of Hamas rule may mean for the next generation, parents and educators have begun making their own attempts to change how children are taught.

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'Laying the foundations for another October 7'

Ramallah, says: ‘Gaza must now be opened up to the world, and the centres of ideological indoctrination must be dismantled.

Footage from inside the classrooms shows children being taught about equality, freedom and coexistence.

One teacher tells pupils that people should not be discriminated against because of their religion or ethnicity, while another says she and others like her ‘long for peace, hope and security’.

Professor Hussein al-Deek, from the Modern University College of

In eastern Rafah, an area under Israeli military control, an armed anti-Hamas Palestinian group led by Yasser Abu Shabab established

‘Art, entertainment and music centres should be opened, and educational institutions and school curricula must be taken out of the control of any extremist group.’

If the education system remains closed, he says, Hamas ideology will continue its spread to even ‘ordinary Palestinians who are nonpolitical and not members of any party… who have embraced the discourse of hatred toward the other’.

An international body likely to play a significant role in reforming Gaza's schools is the Board of Peace. Chaired by Donald Trump, it will oversee Gaza's post-war transition, including governance, security, demilitarisation and reconstruction.

An official told the MoS: 'The president's vision as represented in the plan – and endorsed by the UN Security Council – speaks specifically toward the criticality of deradicalisation.

'The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza is the future technocratic Palestinian governance in Gaza, which is developing new curricula, new education protocols, efforts to promote social peace, and reintegration of Gaza into the region.'

The success of their efforts and those of the courageous educators and parents in Gaza will not be known for decades, by which time today's infant boys born into war will be young men.

To prevent another October 7 massacre, it's imperative that they don't carry hatred into adulthood.

The Mail

BRITAIN'S Victorian industrial revolution was often a brutal business in which men, women and children suffered conditions most of us today cannot even imagine.

To begin with, the new industrialists were seldom worried about the health or safety of their workforce. The fate of miners was often especially terrible – lungs turned to stone by dust, limbs broken in roof falls, lives shortened by miserable conditions and poor diets.

For many others, sickness was a thing they dreaded above all. They feared it because it would make them unable to work or earn – and so condemn them to the humiliating miseries of the workhouse, a grim institution which lasted almost into modern times.

ON SUNDAY

Sensible reformers realised this could not continue in a great and rich democracy and, bit by bit, they put an end to it. One of the proudest

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Kemi is right. Work, not handouts, is the best cure for anxiety

achievements of the old Labour movement was a system of protection for those who were injured or fell ill.

In 1945, when Labour came to power with a large majority for the first time, this was what its leaders had in mind when they developed the new welfare state.

They did so knowing that it would be Labour voters who would be paying the bill, through their taxes, and it would therefore be very wrong to allow misuse of the system.

Socialists of that era would have scorned the idea that anyone might take advantage of these hard-won benefits as some people do today.

Of course, we have learned over the past few decades to recognise that there are forms of suffering and illness which our forebears might too readily have dismissed. We are in general kinder and more generous to those who are distressed in ways which show no visible scars. Quite right too.

But now there are worrying signs that this may have gone too far, especially with the

diagnosis of complaints such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The methods used to diagnose that problem are, at the very least, questionable, owing to their often subjective nature. This is important because of the considerable payments which may be awarded to those found to be suffering.

Recent TV programmes, on the BBC and Channel 4, have cast doubt on the reliability of some diagnoses. These programmes have been strongly challenged by

supporters of the diagnosis of ADHD, but it would be fair to say that a debate still rages.

So it makes sense for the Tory Party to require more stringent processes before allowing such a generous expenditure of the public's money. An astonishing 43 per cent of claims for personal independence payments (PIP) now come from health conditions such as anxiety, ADHD or routine back pain.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, as we report today, hopes when in Government to stop handouts for mild health conditions. Instead, she wishes to help people get into work.

There will be tougher assessments. Those affected will get support for their conditions, instead. This will be backed by £1 billion in new funding for therapies and occupational health to help people back into employment.

It is hard to see why these reasonable plans should not gain widespread support.

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Would I step up and be the hero? I have my doubts...

HEARING of the terrifying attempt to hijack a Flydubai plane last week, I immediately thought of the noble idea: 'Better to die like a lion than live like a sheep.'

Me? I'm with the sheep. But thankfully there were a number of lions on board who undoubtedly saved the lives of the 182 passengers and crew.

Tales of bravery often provoke self-examination. How brave would any of us be in life-threatening situations? Would we be brave enough – as plumber Yaniv Hayoun was – to storm into the cockpit of a plane and confront a guy who had stabbed their co-pilot? And would we then be able to pull the plane out of its steep descent?

I guess you don't know until it happens, but I have my doubts I would be that wonderful person. I'd more likely be in total panic.

For those of us who are nervous flyers, this saga only confirms our belief that the act of entering a metal tube that is going to hurtle through the air at 500mph, 36,000ft above the Earth, is borderline insane.

The years I spent travelling for work taught me how to manage the fear with a melange of hypnotism, alcohol and a variety of tranquillisers, but each dramatic airborne incident is a new trigger, dredging up all the old anxieties.

I regard even boarding a plane as an act of bravery. The hero who intercepted the pilot's evil intentions, along with the mothers who sat soothing children throughout the ordeal and the many others who remained calm on board, demonstrated a degree of bravery that sadly, I doubt I could ever live up to.

Alexandra Shulman's Notebook

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Oversharing is what I do – it's not bravery

I'VE been busy launching my new book, Black Coffee And Red Lipstick: Notes On Living, on to the unsuspecting world.

At a talk in London, my interviewer, art historian Katy Hessel, asked how it felt to be so personally revealing in some of the essays. Other people have used the word ‘brave’ about the way I reference my cancers, my sex life, even my underwear, in my writing.

But there's certainly nothing remotely brave about exposing intimate details of one's life. Indeed, it's almost the reverse.

While many people prefer to keep all manner of things completely private, others, like myself, find something cathartic in sharing (or oversharing, some might say) personal information.

However I draw the line at revealing too much about other people. I regard myself as fair game, but am acutely aware that others may not be up for the exposure. They have their own stories to tell, particularly when it comes to family. Recollections, as we all know, may vary.

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Racism angle the BBC did not nail

THE accusation, written in a report since removed from the BBC website, that the trend for unadorned nails smacks of ‘white supremacy' and classism, is utterly ludicrous. It's just that, for years, nails have been decorated in ever more extreme ways and now, as ever in fashion, the pendulum has swung the other way.

Although perfectly nude nails appear low-maintenance, they are just as time-consuming to look after as extravagant talons.

As someone ahead of the curve on this particular trend, I can speak from experience. For some months on my regular visit to the salon, I have swapped dithering between blue, crimson, orange or white nails for what's known as a Japanese manicure. This involves massaging the nails with a green paste (which supposedly strengthens them), then buffing them with a mysterious powder that leaves them looking as clean as a newborn's, with just the slightest sheen.

No doubt nude nails – now spotted at every celebrity event – will soon be so common it'll be time to revert to something else. But right now I'm enjoying the sight of my innocent-looking fingernails as I tap away on the keyboard.

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Will it be good vibes only at Tory shindig?

TRENDS also emerge in language. One minute nobody uses a particular word; the next it's being adopted by everyone. Take the word ‘vibes’. Until recently I hadn't heard it used for decades – not since the early 1970s.

At the Labour conference last week, however, coverage of the speeches was all about ‘the vibes’. Is Andy Burnham and his projected policies anything more than good vibes, some commentators asked. It’ll be interesting to see if the Conservative Party conference, which starts today, will have the same Good Vibrations...

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Sometimes ‘lunatic’ is the only word for it

AS FAR as the Green Party is concerned, words can be dangerous. Ahead of its conference this weekend, officials released a list of words and phrases to be avoided in case they caused offence. It included ‘mothers and fathers’, ‘homosexual’, ‘elderly’, ‘lunatic’ and ‘nutter’. How deluded is that?

Or is ‘delusional’ another term that might cause harm, suggesting, as it does, that somebody is not in their right mind?

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I can't stay faithful to Claudia's Traitors

I TRIED, I really tried, to get into The Celebrity Traitors. And it had me hooked until about 15 minutes in, when the two Traitors met and were told to nominate a third. At that point I suddenly felt the urge to make an omelette for supper.

There's something about the way contestants must act as ramped-up

UNRUFFLED: Claudia Winkleman

versions of themselves that rankles, even though I know it's all in the name of entertainment.

That said, even a curmudgeon like me loved Jerry Hall's relatively brief cameo: 'Beneath this dumb blonde lies a smart brunette.' So I'll probably tune in to see more of her – along with Claudia Winkleman's wardrobe.

Claudia's looks – brilliantly styled in every series by Sinead McKeefry – have been a big influence on the high street. I just hope we don't see quite so many frilly-necked blouses on the rails this time around. There is nothing more ageing than a ruffle around a less-than-youthful jawline.

CONSERVATIVES IN BIRMINGHAM

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Kemi should embrace the spirit of Maggie this week, not shy away from her...

S ITTING in her living room in Belgravia's Chester Square in the final year of her life, Margaret Thatcher was becalmed. She knew her place in history was assured.

I visited her regularly on Sunday evenings. Sometimes she would pick up a copy of The President, The Pope And The Prime Minister: Three Who Changed The World. On the cover were pictures of Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II and Margaret herself. I would sometimes say to her: 'You must be proud of that?' Once, with a wry smile, she replied: 'I am, but I think they've got the order wrong.'

Lady T is regarded as Britain's most consequential prime minister since Clement Attlee because she, like him, wanted to change the country, not just manage it. She told me once that politics was 'philosophy in action'.

She wasn't naive about the scale of the challenges she faced on winning office in 1979 – she said it was like climbing up a down escalator.

Today, that analogy feels no less keenly observed. Our structural

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‘Mrs Thatcher trusted the British people’

issues are huge: eye-watering debt, low productivity, a fifth of our workforce on disability benefits, anaemic growth and an ageing population are the flashing red lights on the nation's dashboard.

Yet our current prime minister is a socialist.

Andy Burnham thinks there is no question for which more state is not the right answer, believes we can tax ourselves to growth, and regulate to increased productivity. Nationalisation, higher welfare and more tax were all put on the agenda last week at the Labour Party conference.

And the centrepiece of Burnham's manifesto will be his new national care plan. This, we are told (apparently to reassure), will be modelled on the delivery of the NHS. Heaven help us.

Socialism is back. Tony Blair was a mirage. And according to Burnham, everything that is bad about modern Britain started in 1979 with Margaret Thatcher.

Her diagnosis was clear: Britain was overmanned, under-defended, under-policed, badly educated and poorly governed. Her prescription was simple but not simplistic.

She believed that the spirit of creativity, risk-taking merchant enterprise and economic dynamism still lay in the soul of the British people (albeit temporarily dormant from the suffocating

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WE NEED A NEW IRON LADY MORE THAN EVER

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By SIR CONOR BURNS

CHAIRMAN OF THE MARGARET THATCHER CENTRE

socialism of the 1970s). She believed the wealth of a nation was built on the boundless energy and talent of millions of free people determined to improve their lot.

And she rejected the craven creed of the Left that individual effort, the desire to look after one's family and to pass on wealth, was somehow selfish.

‘A man may climb Everest for himself but at the summit he plants his country’s flag,’ she said.

In short, she trusted the British people, which is something that the current Conservative leader must do as well. Kemi Badenoch's position at the top of the party is secure, which gives her the space for bold, long-term thinking.

The country is crying out for sensible (not socialist) leadership, vision and stability.

So, this week in Birmingham the challenge falls to Kemi. Can she show herself to be a generational leader in the mould of Mrs Thatcher? Has she the instincts and temperament?

Her rejection of borrowing or taxation to fund the social care plan favoured by Burnham shows courage and long-term thinking. Labour's change on the triple lock offers space for thinking about pension provision in the decades ahead, which should be embraced.

At conference last year, Badenoch announced the Tories would abolish stamp duty. This week, it is thought inheritance tax could go the same way. But she must knit together these policies into a vision of what Badenoch's Britain will look like after ten years.

How will she use the Brexit freedoms to unleash the economic dynamism of Britain? How will she keep Britain defended at a time of dire peril? How will she change welfare to protect the vulnerable, not coddle the feckless?

How will she defeat the ideology of ‘multi-culturalism’ and defend our multi-ethnic society based on Judeo-Christian legal traditions and values? How will she keep our Union strong without appeasement to separatists? How will she harness AI for the benefit of the nation while cherishing the humanity of the individual?

It was this generational thinking that helped Thatcher halve national debt. When she entered No 10, Britain owed 43 per cent of its GDP to debtors. At her leaving, it was cut to 21 per cent. She would be aghast that today the figure is 95 per cent of GDP.

On defence, we can credit her for our Trident nuclear deterrent, Challenger tanks and Type 23 frigates, all ordered by her.

Even before the Falklands War, defence spending was up to 5 per cent of GDP. As the Cold War wound down, Britain was still spending 3.2 per cent by 1990. Those decisions ensured our security and place in the world for decades to come. Today, facing huge peril and war on the continent, the Prime Minister did not even mention the defence of the realm in his speech last week.

Thatcher fired the engines of the service economy, which saw GDP growth nudging 6 per cent in 1988. It was a feat achieved only because she stuck to her economic plan to pivot the country away from heavy industry, even through the early years of her premiership when GDP contracted. And let's

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‘Has Kemi got the instinct and temperament?’

not forget she achieved this within the confines of the then European Economic Community – imagine the fizzing energy she would have brought to using the freedoms Brexit has bestowed on Britain.

Of course, the country's growth was helped by North Sea oil and gas, which Thatcher was not queasy about exploiting, as recent prime ministers have been. She certainly wouldn't have chased investors out of the North Sea with punitive taxes and green levies.

Across the economy, Thatcher kept the tax burden low. Since the 1980s, the size of the state has grown from 38 per cent of GDP to a corpulent 45 per cent, wheezing with inefficiencies and strikes.

Never has Thatcher's observation about the rider becoming heavier than the horse rung truer than today, as millionaires pack their bags and take their tax contributions with them.

Tragically, our position is even more perilous than in 1979 – the apotheosis of Labour Britain according to Burnham.

So, far from running from Thatcher's legacy, as some have advised, this week Kemi must channel her inner Iron Lady – for the country needs it now more than ever.

● Sir Conor Burns is a former Conservative MP and trade minister

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After shingles jab success, a new surprising discovery... Baking soda ‘could halve odds of getting dementia’

BAKING soda could help halve the chances of developing dementia, researchers have suggested.

The baking ingredient may slash the likelihood of getting the incurable brain disease by an astonishing 51 per cent. This is

UK Government

By Pat Hagan

because the kitchen staple is able to prevent the build-up of harmful acids in the body which can damage brain cells, leading to memory loss. Also known as sodium bicarbonate, it is already used as a 9p-a-tablet drug on the NHS for similar issues in those with advanced kidney disease.

The discovery by US scientists comes as separate trials look at whether the NHS shingles vaccine could protect against dementia.

It is thought the jab can cut the chances of the disease by up to 20 per cent, following a study by Stanford University last year.

After smaller assessments suggested patients taking baking soda for kidney disease scored better on memory tests, researchers decided to look at the health records of millions to see how the pills impacted dementia diagnoses.

Focusing on a group of 122,000 over the age of 50 who had already been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment – issues with their memory which can be an early sign of dementia – they found they were 51 per cent less likely to develop full-blown diseases such as Alzheimer's if they took the tablets.

The team at the University of Pennsylvania has called for further research, saying the drug ‘may influence cognitive function’ due to its impact on acids in the blood.

Writing in the journal eBioMedicine, they found 20 common medications which appeared to protect against dementia – including steroids and painkillers. Nearly one

KITCHEN STAPLE: Baking soda

THE JABS THAT MAY HELP

FIGHT CANCER AND OTHER

CHRONIC ILLNESSES

HEALTH Pages 41-43

million Britons suffer from dementia, a figure which is projected to rise to 1.4 million by 2040.