Teach male refugees how to treat women properly, urges MP

MALE refugees coming to Britain need to be properly taught how to treat women to prevent assault and sexual harassment, according to a senior Labour MP.

Thangam Debbonaire, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees, said that by providing formal training, the UK could tackle issues such as female genital mutilation and sexual harassment.

The comments came as Miss Debbonaire launched a cross-party inquiry to focus on the experiences of new refugees once they have arrived here and called for a ‘refugee integration strategy’ so that men claiming refuge in Britain ‘understand what is expected of them’.

The approach is intended to address fears of sexual attacks similar to those carried out against women in Cologne, Germany, on New Year’s Eve last year.

Miss Debbonaire told the Daily Telegraph: ‘What I don’t want is for the British people to respond to a case of assault or sexual harassment by saying “no” to more refugees, which seemed to be what the public’s response to Germany was in danger of becoming.

‘We need to think about how we have those Hugo Duncan James Salmon A STRING of doom-laden economic forecasts for post-Brexit Britain will be issued this week – sparking a backlash from Leave campaigners.

In a report published today, the Ernst and Young Item Club slashes its growth projections from 2.6 per cent to 1.9 per cent for this year.

For 2017 the rate is predicted to fall from 2.3 per cent to 0.4 per cent.

The Bank of England is expected to follow suit on Thursday when it unveils its first set of forecasts since the vote to leave the European Union.

The gloomy warnings come despite a flurry of developments since the June referendum that suggest the economy is in good health and can prosper outside the Brussels club.

Major companies including McDonald’s, Boeing and drug makers GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca have all announced plans to create jobs and increase investment.

One senior Tory MP last night called for people to ‘stop talking Britain down’ and distinguish between anxiety in the immediate aftermath of the vote and what is actually happening in business.

The Item Club now expects unemployment to rise from its 11-year low of 4.9 per cent to 7 per cent. That would put around three quarters of a million people out of work.

Item, an independent economic thinktank sponsored by Ernst and Young, warns that lending to business will fall by almost 2 per cent next year and 1 per INTEREST rates are set to be cut for the first time in seven years this week in a crushing blow to millions of savers.

The Bank of England is expected to reduce rates from the historic low of 0.5 per cent to 0.25 per cent on Thursday. They were last cut in 2009.

The move will spell misery for Britain’s army of savers who last saw rates rise in July 2007. Experts say they have missed out on £160billion in interest since the height of the financial crisis in 200 . cent in 2018 while mortgage lending is also likely to be hit. It adds that the loss of confidence among businesses and households will take its toll on the banking system as demand falls.

The report says the financial services sector is facing a period of ‘market uncertainty’. However, Omar Ali, of Ernst and Young, adds that while businesses and households are in ‘wait and see’ mode, the impact ‘shouldn’t be blown out of proportion’. He said: ‘Mortgages and consumer credit are still forecast to grow, albeit slower than before, and business lending is going to shrink slightly.’

Last week the Fraser of Allander Institute forecast a “sharp slowdown” in Scotland’s economic growth over the next three years as a result of the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

A report by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales today warns business confidence ‘fell drastically’ after the referendum.

It predicts the economy will grow men understand what is expected of them without pretending we ourselves are perfect.

‘It would need to be sensitively worked out and could be part of a nationwide campaign to help men and boys in general to look at gender equality in a different way.

‘I’m not saying there’s a little ticket you can give incoming men.

‘It shouldn’t surprise us if those from cultures, where gender inequality is an extreme struggle, do not understand social norms and expectations when they get here.

‘All men need this education, our indigenous population is not a haven of gender equality and you could have a situation where boys who have settled, just arrived, or been born by just 0.1 per cent in the third quarter, following growth of 0.6 per cent in the second. But the report adds that confidence has been falling for two years and ‘is now starting to recover’ after the initial shock of the vote.

The Bank of England is also expected to unveil measures to keep the economy on track – including a cut in interest rates.

Governor Mark Carney has already warned that the UK ‘has entered a period of uncertainty’. here, would all get the same information on how they should interact with women.’ It comes after Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said refugees were ‘treasured human beings made in the image of God’ who deserved the ‘opportunity to flourish’.

Mr Welby launched a new scheme for community groups to support refugees at Lambeth Palace alongside Amber Rudd, who used her first public appearance as Home Secretary to back the move.

Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop’s London residence, has become the first community group to join the scheme, with a Syrian family now living in a cottage on the grounds. But Tory MP John Redwood urged the Bank to ‘distinguish between a few surveys in the heat of the moment and the reality of what is going on in the shops, estate agents and factories’. He added: ‘I’m fed up people talking [Britain] down with no hard evidence.’

John Longworth, who was ousted from his job as head of the British Chambers of Commerce after backing Brexit, pointed to signs such as low borrowing costs, adding: ‘Why are they continuing to make these gloomy predictions?’

David Buik, an analyst at stock broker Panmure Gordon, said there were signs that ‘life outside the EU’s vice-like grip offers not only hope but opportunity’.

Britain may use its bloated £11billion foreign aid budget to secure post-Brexit trade deals, it emerged yesterday. International Development Secretary Priti Patel wants to help countries that receive aid become ‘our trading partners of the future’.