Lucas Cumiskey

🏠 Buried in housing data published by the government last month is something that should be getting more attention.

In the year to March 2025, English councils granted planning permission for just 7,384 social rent homes – 3% of the total 235,000 homes that they greenlit. 🧵

Hundreds of racism complaints led to no police officers sacked - Hyphen The 360 complaints were against Police Scotland and Avon and Somerset Constabulary, both of which had said they were ‘institutionally racist’

🔴 @greenparty.org.uk MP @carladenyer.bsky.social said: 'This data suggests there’s very little commitment from either force to repairing public trust.'

Full story now on @hyphenonline.com 👇
hyphenonline.com/2026/03/11/p...

Exclusive: Two police forces said they were institutionally racist — then sacked no officers over 360 race-related complaints in two years, @onlinehyphen can reveal after an eight-month transparency battle. 🧵
@carladenyer.bsky.social @hackneyabbott.bsky.social @runnymedetrust.bsky.social

Miatta Fahnbulleh: why we’re reviewing UK’s ESOL services - Hyphen Fahnbulleh says her own experience shows the value of learning English and warns of migrant women being ‘locked out of society’

‘Being unable to speak English becomes not just an inconvenience but a cage.’

Faith minister @miattafahnbulleh.bsky.social on Labour’s new Protecting What Matters plan, including a review of ESOL services.
hyphenonline.com/2026/03/09/m...

Islamophobia: ‘anti-Muslim hostility’ definition ‘falls short’ - Hyphen Focus on intent and hostility rather than racism and Islamophobia met with disappointment by faith leaders and academics

🔴 Now leading @hyphenonline.com: two major British Muslim organisations, including the @mcb.org.uk, have said they cannot endorse the government’s new definition of Islamophobia, published last night following a year-long process.

Full story by Saman Javed 👇

hyphenonline.com/2026/03/10/i...

Islamophobia: ‘anti-Muslim hostility’ definition ‘falls short’ - Hyphen Focus on intent and hostility rather than racism and Islamophobia met with disappointment by faith leaders and academics

NEW: Faith leaders, charities and academics have criticised the govt’s definition of 'anti-Muslim hostility' as 'falling short' of adequately recognising the spectrum of racism and discrimination affecting Muslims, Saman Javed reports for @hyphenonline.com 👇 hyphenonline.com/2026/03/10/i...

‘He couldn’t breathe’: boy’s ordeal shows NHS waiting lists reality - Hyphen Families who languished on NHS waiting lists for eye treatment and paediatric care for months urge ministers to move faster to clear backlog

🏥NEW: A father has urged the government to focus urgently on tackling the #NHS treatment backlog — after his two-year-old son waited seven months for surgery.

‘Every day, my son was getting worse and worse,' he said. 'He couldn’t breathe properly.’

hyphenonline.com/2026/02/24/n...

NHS waiting list delays see thousands die after waiting too long - Hyphen Exclusive: Up to 28,908 patients died in 2024/25 after waiting over 18 weeks, while Asian British children are overrepresented on wait lists

Tens of thousands of ppl have died after waiting more than the statutory 18 weeks for NHS treatment – often for severely life-limiting conditions like cateracts – since Labour came to power pledging to slash waits.

7,737 had waited more than a year when they died.

hyphenonline.com/2026/02/23/n...

Responding to our findings, @laylamoran.bsky.social — who chairs the cross-party @commonshealth.bsky.social
— said: ‘The fact that so many have died while waiting is tragic and speaks to a system in desperate need of reform. Our committee is intent on pushing the government to go further faster.’

Hyphen can reveal that 79,130 names were taken off the waiting lists of 127 acute NHS trusts between September 2024 and August 2025 because patients had died before reaching the front of the queue.

NHS waiting list delays see thousands die after waiting too long - Hyphen Exclusive: Up to 28,908 patients died in 2024/25 after waiting over 18 weeks, while Asian British children are overrepresented on wait lists

🔴 Exclusive: Tens of thousands of people have died after waiting longer than the recommended 18 weeks for hospital procedures such as hip and knee replacements since Labour came to power pledging to slash waits, data uncovered by @hyphenonline.com suggests. hyphenonline.com/2026/02/23/n...

18,000 Home Office staff still missing Windrush training - Hyphen The Home Office agreed to give all immigration employees new training after the Windrush scandal. Six years on, thousands haven’t done it

Just over half of Home Office immigration staff have completed equalities training, six years after it was recommended for ‘all immigration and policy officials’.

Apsana Begum MP: ‘It is clear that the lessons are not being learned fast enough.’

hyphenonline.com/2026/02/19/1...

Pepper spray used on 10% of teens at young offender institutions - Hyphen Figures revealed after high court quashes appeal against rollout of Pava spray in YOIs on basis its use would be ‘extremely rare’

“I am deeply concerned to hear that PAVA spray has been used against so many children in less than a year since the policy was approved.” - Children's Commissioner for England.

https://hyphenonline.com/2026/01/19/pava-pepper-spray-incapacitant-young-offender-institutions-18-1-in-10/

Pepper spray used on 10% of teens at young offender institutions - Hyphen Figures revealed after high court quashes appeal against rollout of Pava spray in YOIs on basis its use would be ‘extremely rare’

🔴Excl: Children's Commissioner for England is ‘deeply concerned’ by data revealing 10% of teens at two young offender institutions had a controversial incapacitant spray used on them in 2025.

A judge on Monday quashed a challenge against the use of Pava in YOIs.
hyphenonline.com/2026/01/19/p...

Screenshotted text (with 'extremely rare' highlighted) reads: This, then, is how the decision-making process developed and concluded. It is plain that the Secretary of State was closely involved in the formation of the PAVA policy and was insistent upon thorough safeguards being introduced concerning its use, as well as constant “live” monitoring and oversight of the limited use of PAVA which she expected to be extremely rare in view of the limitations upon its use: viz, as a last resort, and only where there is an immediate threat of life-changing or life-ending violence.

🔴 A judicial review against the govt's rollout of pepper spray (PAVA) in young offender institutions was dismissed today, meaning its use will continue.

The judge cited govt assurances that the spray would only be used in 'extremely rare' instances. But Hyphen can reveal...

You can read the full story here 👇 hyphenonline.com/2026/01/19/p...

It comes after a high court judge today quashed a judicial review brought by @thehowardleague.bsky.social charity challenging the rollout of pelargonic acid vanillylamide (Pava) in YOIs, pointing to government assurances that the use of the chemical would be 'extremely rare'.

🔴Excl: The children’s commissioner for England is 'deeply concerned' by data obtained by Hyphen revealing a tenth of all youngsters at two young offender institutions have been sprayed with a controversial synthetic pepper spray in the months since ministers greenlit a trial of its use by staff

Yemeni steelworkers who 'built UK' still waiting for pensions - Hyphen Thousands of workers had their pension payments stopped with no explanation a decade ago. Now their families are paying the price

ICYMI: A generation of Yemeni steelworkers who helped build post-war Britain in the 1950s and 1960s are still waiting for their missing pension payments — years after government was first made aware of the problem, @hyphenonline.com's Aisha Rimi revealed last week 👇 hyphenonline.com/2026/01/07/y...

What’s happening with the UK Islamophobia definition? - Hyphen Experts weigh in on the UK’s attempt to codify a problem some call anti-Muslim racism or anti-Muslim hatred

Can the UK really define Islamophobia without using the word Islamophobia?

Saman Javed looks back at the disputes and false starts in Britain's journey to an official definition of the problem, including the row over what to call it.

hyphenonline.com/2025/12/17/i...

Halal food fraud reports to Food Standards Agency surge - Hyphen Meat being misrepresented or mislabelled as halal and document fraud are among the 44 allegations made to the watchdog in recent years

Halal food fraud reports to the Food Standards Agency hit a five-year high in 2024, @hyphenonline.com can reveal

🔴 Labour MP @nazshahbfd.bsky.social said allegations of halal food fraud were 'deeply disturbing'
hyphenonline.com/2025/12/16/h...

A baby's hand poking out of a red sleeve, visible from behind as it sticks out of a buggy

🔴 EXC from @lucascumiskey.bsky.social: babies and toddlers have been referred to the government’s controversial counter-terrorism scheme Prevent hundreds of times since 2016, new data reveals.

Babies and toddlers referred to Prevent hundreds of times More than 200 referrals made to counter-terror scheme for children aged three or under since 2016, most citing ‘Islamist’ concerns

🚨Exclusive: Babies and toddlers have been referred to the government’s controversial counter-terrorism scheme Prevent hundreds of times since 2016

@libdems.org.uk MP Munira Wilson said ‘These figures are deeply concerning and raise serious questions’ about Prevent hyphenonline.com/2025/11/12/b...

‘Life in the UK’ test not fit for purpose — Lord Wajid Khan Speaking at inaugural Hyphen Festival, Labour peer adds that government must do more to tackle cost of living crisis

🔴 NEW from @anitamureithi.bsky.social: the government's former resettlement minister Lord Khan told an audience at #HyphenFestival2025 that the 'life in the UK' test for new citizens is not fit for purpose & Starmer's 'island of strangers' speech was 'not right'.

hyphenonline.com/2025/11/04/w...

L-R: Lucas Cumiskey, Saman Javed and Anita Mureithi

Beyond proud that my @hyphenonline.com colleagues @lucascumiskey.bsky.social, Saman Javed and @anitamureithi.bsky.social have been shortlisted in the #BritishJournalismAwards2025 – days after our northern corr Aisha Rimi won Journalist Media Personality of the Year at the Black Muslim Awards 2025.

Change of His Majesty’s Ambassador to Libya: Martin Reynolds Following his appointment in December 2024 to succeed Dr Martin Longden CMG OBE as His Majesty's Ambassador to the State of Libya, Mr Martin Reynolds CB CMG will now take up his new post during Octobe...

Hands up if you remember 'Party Marty'? The BYOB event extraordinaire of the Boris Johnson Covid-era? Well, he's got a new gig as ambassador to Libya www.gov.uk/government/n...

Islamophobia working group submits proposals to government Shaista Gohir, part of the group working on a definition of Islamophobia, says attacks on members are intended to scare government

BREAKING: A crossbench peer who was among five independent experts tasked with producing an Islamophobia definition has issued a warning as the group submits its proposals to the government.

Story by @lucascumiskey.bsky.social 👇

hyphenonline.com/2025/10/13/i...

Ayaan Ali Waeys’ death followed missed opportunities — coroner Ayaan Ali Waeys died of natural causes, coroner concludes, but says medics had chances to ‘change course of events’

The family of Ayaan Ali Waeys, a Black Muslim woman who died after giving birth to a stillborn baby, have called for urgent action on racial inequalities in maternity care.

An inquest found ‘missed opportunities’ in her treatment.

✍🏿 @anitamureithi.bsky.social

hyphenonline.com/2025/10/08/a...

Halal investments ‘unknowingly’ profiting from war in Gaza Sharia-compliant funds including the HSBC Islamic Global Equity Index have more than $1bn tied up in firms such as Microsoft and Alphabet

British Muslims with investments and pensions in sharia-compliant funds may be unknowingly profiting from Israel’s war in Gaza and the occupation economy, a @hyphenonline.com investigation has found.

Full story from @lucascumiskey.bsky.social.

hyphenonline.com/2025/09/23/s...

Worrying to see that accounts which spread disinformation related to the riots last July are *still going* on X - and spreading racist lies about British Muslim politicians.

Thank you @hyphenonline.com & @lucascumiskey.bsky.social for this important and concerning investigation