Category Archives: UK news

Legacy of Diane Sindall’s murder lives on as 1987 conviction is overturned

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As Peter Sullivan is released after serving 38 years for a crime he didn’t commit, efforts turn to finding the killer

People still lay flowers at the granite memorial stone close to the place in Birkenhead where Diane Sindall met her horrific, shocking death. It reads: “Murdered 2.8.1986 because she was a woman. In memory of all our sisters who have been raped and murdered. We will never let it be forgotten.”

On Merseyside, the killing has a legacy that is still felt today. For nearly four decades, many assumed justice had been served and the right man had been convicted. On Tuesday, that was turned on its head when the court of appeal ruled Peter Sullivan was an innocent man.

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Government seeks to disqualify Lex Greensill from managing a UK firm for 12 years

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Lawyers tell high court the founder of Greensill Group made misrepresentations to insurers and investors that led to big losses

The government is seeking to disqualify the Australian financier Lex Greensill from managing a UK company for 12 years, the high court has heard.

Greensill, a former Australian sugar farmer, is the founder and chief executive officer of Greensill Group – which specialised in supply-chain finance – the UK wing of which entered into administration in March 2021.

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Give terminally ill people choice in how they die, MSP urges Scottish parliament

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Liam McArthur opens debate on assisted dying, saying too many face ‘horrendous choices and bad deaths’

Scottish politicians have been urged to show terminally ill people compassion and choice in how they die as they began to debate a new law to permit assisted dying.

Liam McArthur, a Scottish Liberal Democrat MP, said too many dying people faced “horrendous choices and bad deaths”, including unregulated suicides or prolonged trauma because they were denied the right to an assisted death.

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Goodison Park saved from bulldozers to become home of Everton Women

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US owners confirm it will become the country’s first major stadium dedicated to a women’s team next season

Goodison Park, one of the UK’s oldest football stadiums, has been saved from demolition and will become the country’s first major stadium dedicated solely to a women’s team next season.

Hailed as a gamechanging move for women’s football, Everton Women will kick off their first season at Goodison in September, 133 years after the men’s team started playing at the ground in Walton, Liverpool.

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Starmer faces opposition of Labour MPs and employers over immigration shift

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Some backbenchers already thought PM had moved too far right on issue but aides say aim is to make system ‘fairer’

“We must never accept the Tory or media narrative that often scapegoats and demonises migrants,” Keir Starmer wrote in 2020. “Problems of low pay, housing and public services are not caused by migrants – they are caused by a failed economic model.”

Much has changed since Starmer was running to be leader of the Labour party – not least, that as prime minister he now has a broader electorate to keep on side.

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Starmer defends plans to curb net migration after backlash from MPs

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Prime minister’s ‘island of strangers’ speech was likened to rhetoric of Enoch Powell

Keir Starmer has defended his plans to curb net migration after an angry backlash from MPs, businesses and industry to a speech in which he said the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers” without tough new policies.

The rhetoric was likened by some critics to the language of Enoch Powell, and the prime minister was accused of pandering to the populist right by insisting he intended to “take back control of our borders” and end a “squalid chapter” of rising inward migration.

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British man being held in Saudi Arabia jailed for 10 years, say lawyers

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UK Foreign Office criticised by campaigners as Ahmed al-Doush given sentence for charges thought to relate to deleted tweet

A British national arrested in Saudi Arabia on charges that appear to relate to a deleted tweet has been jailed for 10 years, according to British lawyers and campaign groups representing the family.

Ahmed al-Doush was arrested in August and, while it is understood that UK Foreign Office officials were allowed into the Saudi court for his hearing, the British government has been criticised for a lack of action since his arrest.

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Liz Kendall to overhaul DWP’s assessment for disability benefits

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Work and pensions secretary calls for groups to engage as she scraps capability assessment and overhauls Pip application

Liz Kendall is to begin an overhaul of the disability benefit assessment process long decried by campaigners as cruel, calling on groups to engage with the changes amid criticism of the government’s forthcoming welfare cuts.

The work and pensions secretary said on Monday she was beginning the process of abolishing the work capability assessment and overhauling the process to apply for the personal independence payment (Pip) – which can be paid to those in or out of work – to form a single assessment process.

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Green party must choose again between election-focused or activist leaders

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Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns will be up against Zack Polanski, who is calling for ‘eco-populism’ mass movement

So here we are again. Much as was the case in 2021, the last time the Greens picked their leaders, members have a choice that could be broadly presented as the more sober, election-focused professionals versus insurgent activists.

On one side of the equation are Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns, both MPs, and in the case of Ramsay, already a co-leader. Four years ago, he and Carla Denyer saw off Amelia Womack and Tamsin Omond with a self-stated mission to change the party and win elections.

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Adrian Ramsay to stand for re-election as Greens co-leader with Ellie Chowns

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Exclusive: Waveney Valley MP and North Hereforshire MP likely to go up against party’s deputy leader Zack Polanski

Adrian Ramsay is to stand as Greens co-leader with another of the party’s MPs, Ellie Chowns, amid what the duo describe as an unprecedented fracturing of political allegiances that meant it was vital to have leaders in Westminster with a proven record of winning.

Ramsay has already been co-leader for four years, alongside Carla Denyer, who with Ramsay, Chowns and Siân Berry were elected to parliament last year in the party’s greatest electoral triumph.

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Taiwan ex-president Tsai Ing-wen to visit UK as China ratchets up threats against Taipei

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Former leader had been due to visit in October but trip was cancelled when it coincided with David Lammy’s trip to Beijing

Former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will visit Britain this week at the invitation of British politicians, a trip that comes as London is trying to improve ties with Beijing and China ramps up efforts to diplomatically isolate the island.

Britain, like most countries, has no official diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but the economic and political exchanges between the two sides have increased as Beijing ratchets up military threats to force Taipei to accept its sovereignty claim over the democratic island.

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UK food shops report ‘massive’ rise in pensioner shoplifting

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Kingdom Services boss says retailers seeing ‘different sort of shoplifter’ with more theft by people ‘who just can’t afford food’

Food retailers have seen a “massive” increase in pensioner shoplifters over the last year, according to a leading store security firm, amid the rising cost of living.

John Nussbaum, director of service for retail at Kingdom Services Group, has said his staff were seeing a “different sort of shoplifter now” as the cost of living “pushes people to something they’ve never done before”.

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Potential role for Chinese firm in key UK windfarm attracts government scrutiny

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Exclusive: Decision on whether to work with turbine maker being overseen by ministers after British Steel rescue

Ministers are weighing up proposals for a Chinese company to supply wind turbines for a major offshore windfarm in the North Sea.

The government is in discussions with Green Volt North Sea over whether Mingyang, China’s biggest offshore wind company, should supply the wind turbines. Mingyang has emerged as the preferred manufacturer, but the company has sought advice from ministers on whether to proceed.

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Gerry Adams fights for peacemaker reputation in trial over BBC murdered spy claim

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Former Sinn Féin leader denies claim made in 2016 documentary he sanctioned 2006 killing of MI5 informant Denis Donaldson

It is a small, compact courtroom with a digital clock that glows beneath the judge’s bench, but the evidence unfurled in the case of Gerry Adams versus the BBC is expansive and spans decades of Irish and British history.

The former Sinn Féin leader’s childhood and political awakening, the evolution of the Troubles, the IRA’s deadly campaign, the peace process, the murder of a British spy, all have been outlined – and contested – in the libel hearing at Dublin’s high court.

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Nottinghamshire families left unaware of babies’ blood test results in second NHS error

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About 300 families may not have been told whether children carry trait for genetic disorders such as sickle cell disease

Hundreds of families in Nottinghamshire have potentially been left unaware of whether their babies may be carriers of certain genetic blood disorders, the second such NHS error to come to light since the start of this year.

About 300 families whose children were born between 2004 and September 2024 in Bassetlaw and mid-Nottinghamshire were identified by the NHS as being affected.

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Ex-Royal Marine completes ‘world’s longest triathlon’ at Everest summit

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Mitch Hutchcraft swam the Channel, cycled to India and ran to Nepal, covering 8,000 miles, to raise money for charity

A former Royal Marine has completed “the world’s longest triathlon”, which he started in the UK eight months ago and finished at the summit of Mount Everest.

Mitch Hutchcraft, from Cambridgeshire, travelled more than 13,000km (8,077 miles) in 240 days by swimming, cycling, running and trekking before reaching the world’s highest peak on Sunday.

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NHS nurses could go on strike in pursuit of 25% pay rise, union boss warns

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Exclusive: RCN’s Nicola Ranger says nurses could ‘bare our teeth’ as they seek restoration of lost earnings

Nurses deserve a 25% pay rise and may go on strike again unless ministers dramatically improve their “completely unacceptable” 2.8% offer to NHS staff, the profession’s leader has said.

Prof Nicola Ranger, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said nurses wanted full restoration of lost earnings and could “bare our teeth” in pursuit of that goal.

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UK supermarkets suspend supplies from Lincolnshire pig farm over cruelty claims

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Workers at farm owned by UK’s biggest pig meat producer Cranswick filmed killing piglets by banned ‘blunt force trauma’

• Warning: graphic content

Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons have suspended supplies from a Lincolnshire pig farm linked to abuse against pigs.

Secretly filmed footage has shown farm workers at Northmoor Farm appearing to grab piglets by their hind legs and smashing them on to the hard floor – a banned method of killing known as blunt force trauma or “piglet thumping”.

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Second man arrested in connection with death of man on UK cruise ship

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Man, 56, from Richmond, London, detained on suspicion of manslaughter, after death of James Messham, 60, of West Sussex

A second man has been arrested in connection with the death of a 60-year-old man onboard a cruise ship.

James Messham, from Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, died after an “altercation” on the MSC Virtuosa as it was in British waters on Saturday 3 May during a short trip to Belgium.

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UK to time limit visas for roles below graduate level under new migration plan

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Yvette Cooper to announce proposals to reduce net migration as government reacts to growing pressure from Reform UK

Visas for skilled overseas workers will be time-limited for those not taking a graduate-level job, the Home Office has announced.

The measure comes as part of a preview of wider plans being unveiled this week that are designed to reduce net migration to the UK.

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