Category Archives: UK news

Labour: anger, recrimination and bitterness mark fresh battle for party’s soul

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The election was bad, but the aftermath is worse for a divided party

Labour leadership contests are normally traumatic events held in very unhappy times for the party. The election of Ed Miliband in 2010 followed a general election defeat that ended 13 years of Labour government. Five years later Jeremy Corbyn was installed after Miliband failed to return the party to power. Then in the summer of 2016 a revolt against Corbyn by his own MPs sparked another contest, which saw the incumbent win again and take revenge on the mutinous parliamentary party.

Inevitably these contests cause internal ruptures as rival candidates set out opposing visions and their supporters divide into camps. The 2010 campaign had its tragic aspects too, as the Miliband brothers, Ed and David, fell out while fighting each other for the right to succeed Gordon Brown.

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Dog’s dinner: labrador has emergency surgery after eating 30 Christmas decorations

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Dog undergoes two lifesaving operations in Dorset after gorging on gingerbread tree ornaments

A seven-year-old labrador has undergone two lifesaving operations after gorging on more than 30 homemade gingerbread Christmas tree decorations.

The dog’s owner, Rachael Bulmer, from Bournemouth, rushed her pet Marley to the PDSA Pet Hospital in the Dorset town after it became seriously ill. Vets performed emergency surgery on Marley to remove ribbons attached to the biscuits.

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Prince Philip to spend ‘a few more days’ in hospital

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Queen is not changing her Christmas schedule as Duke of Edinburgh remains in London

The Duke of Edinburgh is expected to stay in hospital for a few more days while receiving treatment relating to a “pre-existing condition”.

His planned admission on Friday to King Edward VII’s Hospital in central London, which has treated members of the royal family for decades, was described as precautionary by Buckingham Palace.

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Boris Johnson dances around Varadkar’s claim of ‘hard’ Brexit

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Irish leader fears UK wants to ‘undercut’ European rivals in areas such as food after exit

Boris Johnson appeared to sidestep accusations from European leaders that he is on course to deliver a “harder Brexit”.

The prime minister is expected to have combative trade talks in the new year after ruling out adhering to Brussels’ rules after 2020 when the transition period ends.

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Police link Hertfordshire death with Barnet stabbing

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Man whose body was found with stab wounds in Elstree is being linked to fatal stabbing in north London on Thursday

The death of a man whose body was found with stab wounds in Hertfordshire is being linked to a murder in north London, the Met police said.

Hertfordshire police made the discovery in Hogg Lane, Elstree, on Friday. Detectives are treating it as linked to a stabbing near Scratchwood Park, Barnet, on Thursday.

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Dead rats, putrid flesh and sweaty socks: rare orchid gives UK botanists their first whiff

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The plant has flowered for the first time in Britain, but the climate crisis is making such events rarer than ever

It is famous for smelling like “a thousand dead elephants rotting in the sun”, its petals resemble decaying flesh, and it is so rare that outside its natural habitat in Papua New Guinea, few botanists in the world have ever seen it in flower.

Now this highly pungent orchid – Bulbophyllum phalaenopsis – is in bloom for the first time in a glasshouse at Cambridge University Botanic Garden.

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‘Handing control away’: UK’s sale of Cobham defence firm to US company decried

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Founding family criticises approval of £4bn deal despite national security concerns

The government has been accused of handing control away after it approved a US private equity firm’s £4bn takeover of the UK defence company Cobham despite national security concerns.

The deal had been delayed since mid-2019 after fears were raised that Advent International’s acquisition could undermine the country’s security.

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Man tells of using narwhal tusk during London Bridge attack

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Civil servant Darryn Frost confronted terrorist and pinned him to the ground

A civil servant has described the moment he confronted the London Bridge terrorist with a narwhal tusk as the terrorist threatened to detonate a suicide vest.

Darryn Frost, 38, a South African who has lived in the UK for 14 years and works in the Ministry of Justice, intervened after Usman Khan had fatally wounded Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt at a criminal justice conference at Fishmongers’ Hall on 29 November.

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Brexit: MPs pass withdrawal agreement bill by 124 majority

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Bill passes second reading by 358 votes to 234 leaving UK on course to leave EU by end of January

Britain has taken a pivotal step towards leaving the European Union as Boris Johnson was rewarded for the Conservatives’ thumping general election victory with a majority of 124 for his Brexit deal in the House of Commons.

Addressing MPs on Friday morning, the prime minister sought to draw a line under three years of bitter parliamentary conflict, urging his colleagues to “discard the old labels of leave and remain”.

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Brexit: MPs voting on withdrawal agreement bill – live news

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MPs vote on the EU withdrawal agreement bill, and Clive Lewis becomes the second Labour MP to enter party’s leadership contest

Brexit secretary Steve Barclay said the general election had delivered a clear instruction to parliament to leave the EU and so MP should respect that decision and back the bill.

This bill is not a victory for one side over the other. The time has come to discard the old labels to move from the past divisions and to come together as one United Kingdom.

Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary who is predicted to run for the Labour leadership, warned Conservative MPs to “be careful”. “Doing things because the government has a majority doesn’t mean those things are right,” he said.

He said that the move to water down commitments to child refugees is an example of that. “That is a moral disgrace,” he said.

I turn to my own benches. We may have lost the general election, but we have not lost our values and our beliefs and we must fight for them – day in, day out – in this parliament and we will.

That doesn’t mean that the deal negotiated by the prime minister is a good deal. It isn’t. It was a bad deal in October when it was signed. It was a bad deal when it was first debated in this House in October. It was a bad deal last Thursday and it’s a bad deal today.

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Anne Sacoolas refuses to return to face Harry Dunn charges

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Potential 14-year term for killing 19-year-old is ‘not proportionate’, says US woman’s lawyer

The wife of a US intelligence officer charged with causing the death by dangerous driving of the 19-year-old motorcyclist Harry Dunn, will not return to the UK voluntarily, her lawyer has announced.

A statement from the lawyer for Anne Sacoolas came after the Crown Prosecution Service announced it was bringing charges over Dunn’s death in August. Amy Jeffress said the potential 14-year sentence was “not proportionate” for what was “a terrible but unintentional accident”.

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Prince Philip treated in hospital for pre-existing condition

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Ninety-eight-year-old moved from Norfolk to the King Edward VII hospital in London

The Duke of Edinburgh has been admitted to hospital for observation and treatment in relation to a pre-existing condition, Buckingham Palace said.

In a statement, the palace said: “The Duke of Edinburgh travelled from Norfolk this morning to the King Edward VII hospital in London for observation and treatment in relation to a pre-existing condition. The admission is a precautionary measure, on the advice of his royal highness’s doctor.”

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Queen’s speech: PM points to harder Brexit and 10-year rule

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Johnson government outlines tougher laws on sentencing and constitutional reform

Boris Johnson has set out his vision for the Tories to govern for the next decade as he published a Queen’s speech that points the way towards a harder Brexit and sweeping constitutional reforms.

The prime minister claimed that he wanted his programme for government to last for more than one parliament, describing it as a “blueprint for the future of Britain”.

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Racist incidents on rise in British army, warns ombudsman

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Nicola Williams urges MoD to do more to tackle ‘depressingly frequent’ racism

Incidents of racism in the armed forces are happening with “increasing and depressing frequency”, its official ombudsman has warned.

Nicola Williams, the service complaints ombudsman for the armed forces, called on the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to do more to tackle racism among service personnel.

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Queen’s speech: NHS at heart of Johnson’s plans, says minister

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Rishi Sunak highlights £34bn health spending, but appears to water down social care pledge

Boris Johnson will try to use the Queen’s speech to refocus attention away from Brexit and on to the NHS, the government has confirmed.

The prime minister intends to put the health service at the centre of the legislative programme, according to the chief secretary to the Treasury, Rishi Sunak.

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Aid groups warn Boris Johnson against combining DfID with Foreign Office

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Charities caution that ‘UK aid risks becoming a vehicle for UK foreign policy’ if post-Brexit merger comes to fruition

A coalition of aid groups including the British Red Cross, Cafod and Oxfam GB has warned Boris Johnson that to abolish the Department for International Development would suggest Britain is “turning our backs on the world’s poorest people”.

One climate diplomacy expert said it would be “political suicide” to merge DfID with the Foreign Office in 2020, the same year the UK is hosting the UN climate summit, since the move would tie up senior civil servants when they were most needed to tackle the response to the climate crisis.

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Emily Maitlis: ‘Prince Andrew was unleashed. He wanted to tell me everything’

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Newsnight was granted a rare audience with the royal ... and after a decade of silence, he was unstoppable. Its presenter shares the secrets of the interview of the century

Series 3, episode 4: The Crown. A BBC van pulls up at Buckingham Palace to record a royal documentary.

As in life, so with television: timing is everything. Had The Crown aired its new series one week earlier … Had the fictional Queen been spotted squirming at the TV crews in her midst … Had the distant memories of a now-banned palace interview been fresher in our minds … It is entirely possible, and more than probable, that the Prince Andrew interview would never have happened.

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British Airways slumps to near bottom in passenger survey

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Which? finds BA ranks badly for both long and short haul, but Ryanair still props up table

British Airways has taken a nosedive in UK passengers’ opinions and is now rated just above Ryanair at the bottom end of the airline rankings.

The flag carrier was among the worst rated for food, seat comfort and value for money on both short and long-haul services in the annual Which? poll.

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Labour party staff angry at handling of possible redundancies

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Corbyn aides Seumas Milne and Karie Murphy moved to permanent contracts, unlike others

Labour party staff who are angry that they face losing their jobs while senior aides to Jeremy Corbyn remain on the payroll have been called in to meetings to discuss possible redundancies.

A leaked email sent on Wednesday shows that workers and advisers from the offices of the Labour leader and shadow ministers have been invited to meetings with their line managers following Thursday’s catastrophic election result.

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IRA man John Downey participated in Hyde Park bombing, judge rules

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Civil court decision opens way for relatives of four killed soldiers to obtain damages

A convicted IRA member in jail on separate murder charges was an “active participant” in the 1982 Hyde Park bombing, the high court has ruled in a civil action taken by the victims’ families.

Relatives of four soldiers who died in the IRA blast were told that John Downey was liable for the explosion that killed their loved ones.

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