Research from King’s College London finds that Reform voters’ perceptions were furthest from the truth
The public overestimate how many minority ethnic people are killers, as well as how many foreign national offenders there are, a new study has found.
The research from King’s College London tested knowledge and perceptions of crime at a time when radical right parties are trying to link offending to ethnicity and nationality to gain votes.
Continue reading...Fierce competition in some areas of London means landlord purchasers are making successful lowball offers
The average price of a home coming up for sale in Britain’s richest borough has dropped by almost £100,000 in a month as fierce competition among sellers in many areas prompts some to slash their price expectations, data shows.
The property website Rightmove said that for Britain as a whole, average newly listed asking prices for homes had fallen by 2% over the past month, the largest August price drop in eight years.
Continue reading...Angela Rayner to launch guidance for ‘default yes’ on developments near transport hubs, including on green belt sites
Thousands more homes could be built within 10 minutes of transport hubs, including on green belt sites, under a loosening of planning policy announced by Angela Rayner on Monday.
The housing secretary will set out changes to national planning guidance for England that will include an order for councils to have a “default yes” approach to housing developments that are within a reasonable walking distance of well-connected train and tram stations.
Stronger support in principle for development, meaning a more explicit presumption in favour of building in sustainable locations.
Pubs will get protection from being turned into housing or offices with developers having to prove there is no reasonable prospect of keeping a pub as a going concern, including evidence that it was marketed for sale for at least a year.
A requirement for at least 40% of homes to be accessible on bigger developments and stronger protections for community facilities.
Stronger support for growth and infrastructure including support for AI growth zones and datacentres.
Continue reading...Robert Jenrick takes aim at disabled people and foreign nationals after saying UK guilty of ‘suicidal empathy’
Reform UK has been accused of excluding the most vulnerable from society and punishing non-Britons living in the UK as it prepared to outline £50bn of cuts to benefits for disabled people and foreign nationals.
Robert Jenrick, Reform’s finance spokesperson, will detail the plans for £20bn of cuts to disability benefits overall, as well as another £21bn from stopping foreign nationals – including EU citizens with settled status – claiming almost any benefits, among other cuts.
Continue reading...University says it continued to provide support after resignation of academic, who was found dead on Friday
The University of Cambridge has defended its mental health support for the academic Jason Arday.
The university said it had continued to provide Arday with extensive mental health support and security measures, including installing panic alarms and screening racist emails and post, after he resigned from his post as professor of sociology of education this month.
Continue reading...Force has seen busiest month in its history, with heatwaves putting added strain on criminal justice system
On England’s hottest day of the year so far, Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester was thronging with pedestrians, many clutching ice-creams or cold drinks as they passed through the town centre.
Officers from Greater Manchester police were also out in force, some in plainclothes, some stationed by a facial-recognition van, apprehending wanted suspects and stopping persons of interest. In total, officers made 54 arrests across the borough of Tameside as part of Operation Avro, GMP’s blitz on local crime which runs in a different district each month.
Continue reading...Detectives say 55-year-old man arrested and appeal for anyone who witnessed altercation in Wakefield
Police in West Yorkshire have launched a murder investigation into the death of a man after he was bitten by a dog.
Officers were dispatched to Wakefield just after 1.30pm on Saturday, after receiving reports of an altercation a short time earlier on an old trainline footpath.
Continue reading...UK has refused resettlement application despite ‘years of loyal service’ that have resulted in ‘constant fear’ of reprisals
A man has received threats from the Taliban after his work for the Afghan police was revealed by a Ministry of Defence leak and the UK refused his application for resettlement.
Hamid* worked for the Afghan national police special unit and received certificates for his work signed by senior British figures praising his “dedication, unparalleled service and leadership”. His details were also included in an accidental 2022 leak by an MoD official that identified 18,700 Afghans who had worked with or for the British government.
Continue reading...Fans line streets, singing Total Eclipse of the Heart ahead of Welsh singer’s Swansea funeral
Thousands of Bonnie Tyler fans lined the streets of her home town in south Wales to pay respects to the singer as her coffin was brought back to her former home.
The singer, whose real name was Gaynor Sullivan, died unexpectedly on 8 July in Portugal at the age of 75.
Continue reading...Family paid tribute to Bristol University geology student, 18, after being notified by Avon and Somerset police
A body has been found in the search for an 18-year-old British man who went missing last year while hiking in Romania, UK police said.
George Smyth, a geology student at the University of Bristol, went missing in November.
Continue reading...Many complained online that piercingly loud tone was ‘overreach’ while others lamented lack of action on decarbonisation
On Friday at 7pm, Thérèse Coffey was nine miles away from a nuclear power station when her phone made a loud, piercing and very worrying sound: it was a “severe” emergency alert. “Was expecting [a] much more specific alert, not a generic message on wildfires,” the former Conservative cabinet minister said on X.
She wasn’t alone in being alarmed by the alarm sent to phones in England and Wales. In the aftermath, thousands of social media users expressed their shock at alert. Some shared funny memes and others lamented what they viewed as lack of government action on decarbonisation. Academic John Ritzema called it a “massive overreach” and said the alert system should be “be for ‘drop everything and prepare for something terrible’ situations”, something Coffey echoed, saying alerts should not become commonplace to avoid “Peter cries wolf situations”.
Continue reading...British Museum’s £33 tickets sold out in a day but some slots have been reserved for guests at five-star One Aldwych
Those hoping to snare a glimpse of the Bayeux tapestry when it comes to the British Museum this September faced nine-hour online queues, with the £33 tickets sold out within a day.
But the monied guests of a five-star hotel in Covent Garden have not had to go to such arduous lengths to get a view of the nearly 1,000-year-old depiction of William the Conqueror’s victory over King Harold II of England at Hastings in 1066.
Continue reading...Andy Burnham calls for reflection after ‘tragedy on so many levels’ in comments echoed by London mayor Sadiq Khan
Andy Burnham has called the death of Jason Arday, whose body was found at his home in south London on Friday, a “tragedy on so many levels”.
Arday resigned as a professor at the University of Cambridge last week after allegations of plagiarism, which he denied. He was pronounced dead just after 3pm on Friday.
Continue reading...PM steps up climate response with measures including better water access and support for building farm reservoirs
Farmers must not carry the risks of the climate crisis alone, Andy Burnham has said, as he announced £65m of funding to help them manage the devastating drought.
The prime minister is stepping up his response to the immediate climate crisis after facing a backlash from his own MPs and Labour’s grassroots for not addressing the climate crisis despite wildfires tearing through Britain and a drought affecting food producers. Labour MPs argued Burnham had taken too long to talk about the climate crisis and had not made it a priority.
Continue reading...People urged not to light barbecues, campfires or anything else that could spark fire during period of extreme heat
Millions of people across England and Wales received an emergency alert to their phones on Friday as the government warned against activities that could start fires.
The deputy prime minister, Louise Haigh, said it was the most extensive use to date of the emergency alert system, with phones beaming a siren noise about 7pm, with the warning: “There is a serious risk of wildfires nationally.”
Continue reading...Festival organiser says she has booked next year’s headliners but would not say if Taylor Swift is among them
Madonna will not be performing at next year’s Glastonbury, the festival’s organiser, Emily Eavis, has said.
The singer, who has the most top 10 singles in UK chart history of any female artist, has never featured at Britain’s biggest music festival.
Continue reading...One person killed and hundreds evacuated in Croatia as blazes also hit Germany, Greece and Spain
Almost 500 people have been arrested on suspicion of starting wildfires in France since the start of the summer, authorities have said, as firefighters in half a dozen European countries tackle ferocious blazes amid a record-breaking heatwave.
A fire engulfed homes in a Croatian holiday resort on Friday, killing one person, injuring 40 and forcing 1,200 to evacuate, officials said, as the EU warned that pockets of “very extreme” wildfire conditions stretched across the continent.
Continue reading...Move will be one of first large-scale foreign investments in country since US ousted leader Nicolás Maduro in January
BP has answered Donald Trump’s call for oil companies to help rebuild Venezuela’s fossil fuel industry with new plans to develop a large offshore gasfield.
BP will partner with two oil firms with close links to the Trump administration to develop the second phase of the Loran gasfield, in one of the first large-scale foreign investments in Venezuela since the US ousted its leader Nicolás Maduro in January.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Uran Ferizi says arrivals fell sharply after short-lived influx, but country continues to be stigmatised
The number of Albanians who travelled to Britain in small boats four years ago remains the focus of “unhinged” and “hysterical” criticisms from rightwing politicians and the media, according to the country’s UK ambassador.
Uran Ferizi said the influx of more than 12,000 people from the Balkan state in 2022 was “real”, “exceptional” and “short-lived”, but the Albanian community in the UK was still being framed by those events by Reform UK and the Daily Telegraph.
Continue reading...Reform UK leader’s return to Clacton restarts inquiry into £5m gift from crypto-billionaire and support from fraudster
• UK politics live – latest updates
The suspended parliamentary standards investigation into Nigel Farage over accusations he failed to declare gifts and donations has resumed after the Reform UK leader’s re-election as the MP for Clacton.
The twofold investigation by Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, was paused after Farage resigned from his seat and called a byelection in protest at what he said was unfair scrutiny of his finances.
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