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Lizzie Dearden

@lizziedearden.bsky.social
37K followers 165 following 3.2K posts

Security correspondent at @theipaper.com, author of 'Plotters: The UK Terrorists Who Failed' Currently on maternity leave

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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
January 2025 🤷‍♀️
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
If you're following the news around Andy Burnham's speech at the UN General Assembly on how Russia has "amplified far right narratives" and "tried to stoke tensions and unrest", here's a handy article on the targeting of the migration debate inews.co.uk/news/putin-i...
inews.co.uk
How Putin is inflaming immigration tensions to spark disorder in Britain
Counter-terror leaders reveal the tactics Russia is using to sow division in the UK
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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Worrying scenes in the Channel today, for all interested in asylum policy and maritime tactics. A small boat from Normandy spent more than 30 hours at sea. Those on board now on their 2nd rescue vessel as Border Force forced to play cat and mouse with far-right activists who have their own boat.
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Exclusive: The British Army secretly relaxed its vetting policy for at least 2 years, meaning recruits could pass into specialist training without completed checks A far-right extremist later convicted of terror offences was among 13,000 who joined during the period inews.co.uk/news/army-se...
inews.co.uk
Army secretly relaxed vetting - letting in far-right extremist who backed Russia
The revelation raises questions for British military who are a key target for Russian intelligence in Vladimir Putin's 'hybrid war'
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Today is the start of my maternity leave, and how better to celebrate than with the publication of an absolutely massive scoop? I'll share as soon as it's out 👀
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
While Piddington dominates the news, at Leicester Crown Court this man was sentenced today Ivan Jennings, a former Conservative councillor, called for terror attacks on small boat migrants and Muslims and shared target ideas, telling fellow white supremacists to kill as many “subhumans” as possible
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The government needs to learn there is no way of housing asylum seekers that will please a large section of the population, and even less so the hard right They should house people in the most practical way while focusing on processing claims fairly and efficiently, and maybe talk about it less
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The i Paper @theipaper.com · 15/09/2026
Wednesday's front page: Russian spies 'recruiting UK teenagers' Read the full story: trib.al/6GHGjpb #TomorrowsPapersToday
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Exclusive: Russian intelligence agents are “hijacking” online networks of violence-obsessed children and offering them money, guns and coaching on making explosives and poisons, new research suggests At least two incidents have been claimed by the networks in the UK inews.co.uk/news/russian...
inews.co.uk
Russian spies 'recruiting UK teenagers' to carry out acts of violence and sabotage
Russian intelligence agents are “hijacking” online networks of violence-obsessed children and offering them money, guns and coaching on making explosives and poisons, new research suggests. Law enforc...
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Is anyone else in London experiencing some sort of mosquito outbreak? Found 4 in my bedroom alone this morning 😵‍💫
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Awkward on a number of fronts, especially for terminology in political response and media coverage, but proclaiming not to be a protest movement doesn't actually change police obligations They are based on the rights of freedom of assembly and expression, rather than any definition of protest
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The first arrest has been made in relation to Patriot Platform protests - for a 42-year-old man accused of violent disorder and assaulting a police officer in Portsmouth Hampshire Constabulary says detectives are still reviewing footage and "cross-referencing to identify offences committed"
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Police say they are "ready to use every power at our disposal" against further Patriot Platform protests, following a meeting with the home secretary But complex human rights balancing exercises are still needed to use them - even for those with "obvious malign intent" inews.co.uk/news/no-mask...
inews.co.uk
No-mask zones and face scanning: Inside the operation to derail small-boats demos
Police have been told they are expected to make full use of their powers to stop protesters wearing face coverings following disturbances in Dover and Portsmouth
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
A British man acting on behalf of a Russian proxy allegedly plotted with a contact in Swindon to sabotage a drone manufacturer Joshua Cammidge is accused of acting on instructions from Aiden Minnis, who has been fighting for Russian forces in Ukraine inews.co.uk/news/british...
inews.co.uk
British 'spy for Russia asked Swindon man to sabotage UK drone factory'
Prosecutors allege that Joshua Cammidge received instructions from Aiden Minnis, a British man fighting for Russia against Ukraine and believed to be linked to the GRU
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The i Paper @theipaper.com · 09/09/2026
The Metropolitan Police is investigating whether Reform UK broke electoral law on foreign donations following a Channel 4 sting Read more: trib.al/IyavjsF
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Incidents like this have happened with increasing regularity over the past couple of years, with many triggered by local misinformation about the arrival of non-white people at hotels But it has also happened elsewhere, including a church gathering in a park and a Scout trip to an activity centre
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Legal eagles on Bluesky - it's been a while since I fully nerded out on public order and I would love your help! I covered Ziegler at the time but is it still the case that protest provides a lawful excuse defence for highway obstruction, and have the police continued arresting for that offence?
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I received quite an unusual right of reply response for this story inews.co.uk/news/british...
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Bradley Townsend, a 33-year-old joiner from Barnsley, arrived in Moscow in April wanting to volunteer himself for Vladimir Putin's army Within just 10 weeks, he was dead on the Ukrainian battlefield The question is, why did he want to go in the first place? inews.co.uk/news/british...
inews.co.uk
The two British men luring fighters from England to Putin’s ‘meat-grinder’ war
Ben Stimson and Aiden Minnis helped Bradley Townsend settle in Russia before he became the first Briton to die fighting for Russia's military
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Oil tankers in Russia's 'shadow fleet' are trying to throw off tracking attempts using a variety of tactics to manipulate publicly-available location data That includes swapping identity with other vessels and creating false voyage tracks to avoid the prospect of seizure inews.co.uk/news/imitati...
inews.co.uk
The imitation game: How Putin's shadow fleet tankers hide in plain sight
Russian vessels transporting sanctioned oil are taking advantage of a decades-old navigation system to evade seizure
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Not that many years since a popular position in right-wing British politics was calling for the police to use significant force to remove protesters blocking roads Of course, that was when environmentalists were doing it
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I kind of hate myself for asking this but is putting champagne in Guinness actually a thing? Sounds disgusting to me, but then I don't like oysters either, so maybe it's a tax bracket issue
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Incredible stuff - on 10 July, Hampshire Police arrested a man at Heathrow Airport who was wanted for violent disorder in the riots after the murder of Henry Nowak When they checked his suitcase, it was packed with £600,000 of cannabis smuggled from Thailand nca-newsroom.prgloo.com/news/southam...
nca-newsroom.prgloo.com
Southampton man jailed for cannabis smuggling and violent disorder
National Crime Agency for Journalists and Press
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
With the imprisonment of Adeel Khan for helping Iranian spy Daniel Khalife sneak out of HMP Wandsworth under a food delivery lorry in 2023, the story of Khalife's espionage and unlikely escape has finally ended Sharing this recap of the original case just for fun www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024...
theguardian.com
Daniel Khalife: the spy who blew his own cover – and exposed gaping holes in UK security
When the ex-British army soldier was found guilty last week of passing secrets to Iran, it set off alarm bells over the military’s vulnerability to the threat of infiltration
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Amazing organic combinations of Reform news happening on my X timeline
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
If tonight's incredible Channel 4 exposé is the first time you've heard of James Orr, let me introduce you It is impossible to overstate how great his influence has been on the right of British politics, for years He chaired this conference in 2023 www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...
independent.co.uk
The ultra-conservative American radicals infiltrating the Tory party
The National Conservatism Conference, which starred Suella Braverman and Michael Gove this week, was disowned by the Tories only three years ago, Lizzie Dearden writes
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Nathan Gill, the former leader of Reform UK in Wales, has been ordered to pay a court almost £22,600 he received in pro-Russian bribes He was jailed for 10.5 years in November for taking payments for speeches in the European Parliament and appearances on pro-Russian media outlets in 2018 and 2019
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
The threat of a new Russian hybrid attack on the UK is rising, officials and experts fear The use of an explosive drone to target a German airport is a further escalation in tactics against countries supporting Ukraine, and Russia has been openly threatening Britain inews.co.uk/news/explodi...
inews.co.uk
Exploding pillows and airport chaos - how a Russian attack on the UK could unfold
The threat of an attack on the UK is rising, experts say, as Putin threatens revenge on countries who have supported Ukraine
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Another great day for the Single Justice Procedure, which has seen the Mayor of London wrongly convicted - without a hearing - for not taxing a car he doesn't own The car seems to have been linked to him maliciously - potentially as part of an anti-Ulez campaign www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...?
bbc.co.uk
Sir Sadiq Khan convicted for not taxing car he denies owning
City Hall officials say the Nissan Micra does not belong to the mayor or Transport for London.
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Arj Singh @arjsingh.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
EXC: Shabana Mahmood's immigration reforms hit by growing rebellion 10 more Labour MPs put their name to a parliamentary motion as Commons returns from summer break inews.co.uk/news/politic...
inews.co.uk
Mahmood's 'hardline' immigration reforms hit by growing rebellion
More Labour MPs to publicly oppose Home Secretary's changes to indefinite leave to remain
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
The people who carried out the arson attacks on the Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green, and the Kenton United Synagogue, have now pleaded guilty But it is far from the end of either case. Prosecutors allege that both attacks have a terrorist connection because they targeted Jews, but 🧵
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I'll be taking some time off work from October onwards for a very exciting new personal project The i Paper is hiring a security reporter for maternity cover while I'm away and I can't recommend the role more - details here www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/44...
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Any coverage of the US designation of Palestine Action as a terrorist group should bear in mind the US Treasury's framing of it as part of "Action Against Violent Far-Left Terrorist Networks" This is a crusade that has been happening for a long time under the current Trump administration
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The Conservative abdications to Reform have certainly generated some insight into 2022-2024 decision-making we might not otherwise have had
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Exclusive: Police have mounted a national operation to “get ahead” of violence targeting asylum accommodation following riots and attacks It sees the Home Office notify police about new hotels, large sites or HMOs, and enhanced social media monitoring is also underway inews.co.uk/news/inside-...
inews.co.uk
Inside the operation to stop vigilantes attacking asylum seekers' homes
Police have launched a national operation amid warnings that far-right groups are increasingly able to spark unrest
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Exclusive: Police have mounted a national operation to “get ahead” of violence targeting asylum accommodation following riots and attacks It sees the Home Office notify police about new hotels, large sites or HMOs, and enhanced social media monitoring is also underway inews.co.uk/news/inside-...
inews.co.uk
Inside the operation to stop vigilantes attacking asylum seekers' homes
Police have launched a national operation amid warnings that far-right groups are increasingly able to spark unrest
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
As Russia ramps up threats of revenge towards Britain for its support for Ukraine, a company manufacturing drones that have been used in strikes on Russian territory is planning a major expansion in Salisbury Locals are concerned that the proposed site is not secure inews.co.uk/news/cathedr...
inews.co.uk
The cathedral city that could be on Putin's radar...again
Located in Wiltshire, a county home to numerous cutting-edge drone firms, lies a medieval city once targeted by Russia
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Arj Singh @arjsingh.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
EXC: UK on brink of migration deal with Belgium to cut small boat crossings inews.co.uk/news/politic...
inews.co.uk
UK on brink of migration deal with Belgium to cut small boat crossings
The expected deal comes after a spate of smugglers launching so-called “taxi boats” from the country earlier this year
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Interesting ruling on "terrorist connection" - the mechanism used by judges to increase sentences for non-terror offences - in a case over Palestine Action vandalism to a Barclays Bank branch in Burnley A judge found the £200,000 cost of the damage wasn't sufficient to make it "serious" in law
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Neil Miles @neilsmiles.com · 17/08/2026
29th August 1985 - An excited Michael Fish gets to deploy the rarely seen red number as the temperature gets up to an incredible 26 degrees in London!
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
An employee of the government contractor Serco has been charged with sharing the addresses of asylum HMOs that were targeted by mobs in Thetford Several had their windows smashed and fences broken down as groups of people tried to force their way inside at different locations
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Far-right activists are drawing up lists of suspected asylum seeker HMOs across Britain HMO use is increasing as hotels close, and the attacks in Thetford and Belfast have raised concern that they will become a target for mobs elsewhere inews.co.uk/news/vigilan...
inews.co.uk
How far-right vigilantes are targeting asylum seekers as HMO attacks rise
Experts said the targeting of asylum seekers in houses 'represented a new escalation of anti-migrant harassment and violence'
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Far-right activists are drawing up lists of suspected asylum seeker HMOs across Britain HMO use is increasing as hotels close, and the attacks in Thetford and Belfast have raised concern that they will become a target for mobs elsewhere inews.co.uk/news/vigilan...
inews.co.uk
How far-right vigilantes are targeting asylum seekers as HMO attacks rise
Experts said the targeting of asylum seekers in houses 'represented a new escalation of anti-migrant harassment and violence'
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
It's one of those days where it's fine not to say anything at all
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Following Andy Burnham's remarks about the UK's "poorest communities" housing a disproportionate number of asylum seekers, I did some digging Dispersal has become a lot more evenly spread over the past decade but striking disparities exist inews.co.uk/news/the-cot...
inews.co.uk
The Cotswolds, New Forest and Malvern among 17 areas with no asylum seekers
New analysis shows the North West of England houses the largest number of asylum seekers - as Burnham says middle-class areas must 'play their part'
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Writing about my memories of the 1999 solar eclipse for a feature in The i Paper tomorrow and realising that a lot of my fellow reporters don't remember it and several weren't even born
static.klipy.com
Matt Damon's Aging Transformation
ALT: Matt Damon's Aging Transformation
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
'Small' boats are now being launched from 100 miles south of Calais and gradually filled from the sea in a bid to evade UK-funded security along coastline closer to Britain The practice makes journeys longer and more dangerous, with people being crushed on larger boats inews.co.uk/news/small-b...?
inews.co.uk
The new small boats flashpoint where smugglers evade UK crackdown
Criminals are using mega dinghies from scarcely policed beaches to escape scrutiny, as border chief warns government lacks powers to stop boats
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
There are 2010s meme references everywhere for those with eyes to see
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Revealed: A Chinese company that became the first firm sanctioned by the UK government for selling small boats to smugglers a year ago is still offering the vessels for sale It offers boats with “economical” plywood floors and “original designs” for export to Europe inews.co.uk/news/chinese...
inews.co.uk
The Chinese firm still selling Channel mega boats despite UK sanctions
The manufacturer offers options for inflatable boats with 'economical' plywood floors, of the kind used in deadly boat crossings
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The i Paper @theipaper.com · 10/08/2026
Tuesday's front page: 45 million people in the UK now living in drought Read the full story: trib.al/4Kn3NdO
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