On Tuesday, the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, announced that the Government would scrap plans to bring in mandatory digital ID. The policy, announced under the Starmer administration, was intended to help tackle illegal migration and working, as well as improve access to public services. However, the plan received considerable criticism at the time, in particular from human rights charities, being described by Amnesty International UK as ‘a serious cause for concern’, which carried with it ‘new risks of discrimination … including racialised policing.’ The development of the policy was later characterised by the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, Dame Karen Bradley as a ‘fiasco’ which ‘raised fears of government over-reach into people’s lives’. Burnham styled his move to ditch the plans as a ‘reprioritisation of public resource’ but notably refrained from criticising the policy on rights grounds. Although the plans had already been watered down somewhat, Burnham’s recent decision has received immediate praise. Akiko Hart, a Director at Liberty commended the move as ‘a victory for civil liberties in the UK’.
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On Tuesday, the Charity Commission opened a compliance case into Amnesty International UK. This followed Amnesty’s self-referral to the Commission following the significant backlash it received for a now-withdrawn report published on its website. That report had sparked controversy for labelling over one-hundred gender critical organisations as being part of an ‘Anti-Rights Movement’. One such organisation listed by the Amnesty International UK in the report was Beira’s Place – a female-only sexual violence support centre founded by JK Rowling in 2022. Following the publishing of the report, Beira’s Place threatened to take legal action against Amnesty, alleging the report to have been defamatory and demanding a retraction and apology. JK Rowling herself then offered legal funding to any groups that had been named by Amnesty in the report. Amnesty swiftly withdrew the report, explaining that it had failed to go ‘through the established internal review processes that are in place to ensure consistency, accuracy and alignment with Amnesty International UK’s position.’ It has added that it is ‘engaging fully’ with the Charity Commission’s investigation.
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On Monday, the Court of Appeal handed down judgment in Rahim v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2026] EWCA Civ 930. The case took the form of an appeal from the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum). In 2017, the Home Secretary had refused the Appellant’s (Mr Rahim) application for Indefinite Leave to Remain (“ILR”) on the grounds that he had cheated in an English language test in 2012, which was a requirement for him being granted further leave to remain in the UK. Mr Rahmin appealed this Decision, initially on the grounds that he had not deceived the Home Office by cheating. His appeal made ‘general references to Convention rights, and to article 8’ [para. 15]. The First Tier Tribunal found against him and ruled in favour of the Secretary of State. After a series of applications for permission to appeal the FTT’s ruling, Mr Rahmin’s appeal was eventually remitted by consent to the Upper Tribunal, which along with finding that Mr Rahmin had cheated, also found that ‘the public interest in maintaining effective immigration control outweighed his article 8 right to respect for his private life’ [para. 31]. Since the Decision, Mr Rahmin along with his partner (Ms Bibi Ali) had three children. The first of his children (“A”) was a ‘qualifying child’ for the purposes of s. 117B(6) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, being under-18 and either a British citizen or settled in the UK. Mr Rahmin’s case was that the UT had failed to take into account a ‘new matter’ – his relationship with child A – when considering whether the Decision was unlawful for being a disproportionate interference with h
