Roy Harrison, who came to Britain from Jamaica aged six, fighting deportation notice
A man caught in the Windrush scandal has resorted to sleeping in a freezing bin shed because the Home Office has not regularised his status and is trying to deport him.
Roy Harrison, 44, arrived in the UK as a six-year-old. He had been abandoned as a newborn in Jamaica by his mother and left on his grandmother’s doorstep.
Continue reading...Motorist filled up, popped into the attached M&S, used the car wash, then received a parking charge
First it was retail parks, then came station car parks. Now drivers who fill their car up at garages, or use the car wash are being hit with £100 demands from private parking companies for staying too long.
Both BP and Shell have been quietly signing up parking firms to install CCTV cameras at the entrances and exits to petrol stations, which are then used to enforce a maximum stay limit – which can be 30 minutes at a BP station and as little as 20 minutes at a Shell station. Fail to comply, and you’ll face £100 demands and the threat of debt collectors.
Continue reading...Labour leader would negotiate new deal with EU, which would be put to a public vote alongside remain
Jeremy Corbyn would take a “neutral stance” in a future Brexit referendum, he has announced, after facing mounting pressure in recent days to pick a side.
Appearing in a special BBC Question Time programme, in which Boris Johnson was attacked over racism and Jo Swinson found herself on the back foot over Brexit, Corbyn confirmed for the first time he would not campaign either for leave or remain.
Continue reading...UK lawyers and activists demand action as researchers find tenfold rise in usage
Senior lawyers and women’s organisations have condemned the increasing use of “rough sex gone wrong” as a courtroom defence to the murder of women and called for a change to the law in the UK.
In the wake of the conviction of British backpacker Grace Millane’s killer in New Zealand, researchers have revealed a tenfold rise over the past two decades in the number of times similar claims have been made in UK courts.
Continue reading...Home Office unhappy with Foreign Office for potentially opening door to more Isis returnees
No other British children are expected to be repatriated from Syria in the foreseeable future, despite the announcement from the foreign secretary on Thursday that a small number of orphans who had been caught up in the conflict with Islamic State had been brought home.
Home Office officials view the repatriation of the children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as highly exceptional – and there is unhappiness with the Foreign Office for potentially opening the door to more Islamic State returnees.
Continue reading...Amanda Thirsk will run mentoring initiative, as Barclays becomes latest organisation to sever ties with the prince
Barclays has become the latest among a growing number of organisations to sever ties with Prince Andrew, as it emerged that the aide who orchestrated the beleaguered royal’s disastrous interview about his links to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is no longer his private secretary.
Amanda Thirsk, who was said to have played a key role in persuading him to agree to the BBC interview, has reportedly moved on to run his business mentoring initiative, Pitch@Palace.
Continue reading...UK criticised for defying UN deadline to hand over control of Indian Ocean territory
Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to renounce British sovereignty of the remote Chagos Islands and respect a UN vote calling for the archipelago to be handed back to Mauritius.
In comments that appear to commit Labour to return the Indian Ocean islands, the party’s leader said on Friday he intended to “right one of the wrongs of history”.
Continue reading...Government urged to bolster anti-slavery legislation after damning review accuses firms of failure to protect workers
The British government has been urged to strengthen modern slavery legislation after hotels were accused of a “lack of effort” in preventing forced labour and sexual exploitation.
In a damning report published this week, human rights group Walk Free said three out of four hotels in the UK failed to comply with basic legal measures intended to protect workers from debt bondage and other forms of modern-day slavery.
Continue reading...A jury in Auckland has decided a 27-year-old, whose name has been suppressed, knowingly killed the British tourist
A jury in New Zealand has found a 27-year-old man guilty of murdering British backpacker Grace Millane.
Her parents David and Gillian, who had sat through the three-week trial in Auckland’s high court, sobbed at the verdict.
Continue reading...‘Investment blitz’ promised as experts taken aback by scale of Labour’s tax and spend plans
Jeremy Corbyn has urged the public to vote for his “manifesto of hope” as he unveiled plans for the most dramatic increase in tax and spending in more than half a century if Labour wins power next month’s general election.
In an upbeat launch event at Birmingham City University, the Labour leader said he welcomed the hostility of the billionaires, bad bosses and dodgy landlords who would lose out from his policies.
Continue reading...Special repatriation prompts calls for ministers to allow all British children to return
Britain has taken the step of repatriating a small number of orphaned children from north-east Syria who had been caught up in the conflict with Islamic State, the foreign secretary has announced.
Dominic Raab said the UK government had assisted their return from the war-torn country in a special repatriation that prompted calls for ministers to go further and allow all British children stranded in Syria to come back.
Continue reading...Key manifesto pledge includes ending investment in fossil fuel projects and supporting ‘green transitions’ abroad
Labour has pledged to review how hundreds of millions of pounds of foreign aid is spent through the government’s private finance arm and rebrand it as a green development bank.
In a key manifesto commitment, Labour promised to overhaul the CDC, which has received £2bn from the aid UK budget since 2016 to invest in projects in poorer countries.
Continue reading...Scotland’s former first minister faces 14 charges that also include indecent assault
Alex Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland, has appeared in court accused of attempting to rape a woman at Bute House, the Georgian property in Edinburgh’s new town used as the official residence of Scotland’s first ministers, in June 2014.
He appeared at the high court in Edinburgh on Thursday in front of Lady Dorrian, the lord justice clerk, to face a total of 14 charges including one of attempted rape, 11 charges of sexual and indecent assault, some of which allegedly occurred numerous times, and two common law charges of indecent assault dating to 2008. Salmond has repeatedly denied the charges.
Continue reading...Prospect of crashing out of EU leaves UK more exposed to global financial risks, thinktank says
The UK’s GDP growth rate will slip to 1% next year even if a no-deal Brexit is avoided, according to the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation.
The OECD said the economy would slow down from growth of 1.2% this year if parliament passes Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal before the 31 January deadline, before returning to 1.2% in 2021.
Continue reading...Contributions from European countries drop as progress on 0.7% target goes into reverse
Less than 10% of EU aid money reaches the countries where it is most needed, according to a study that found levels of assistance had dropped for the second year running.
The EU and its member states remain the biggest development donor group in the world – investing €71.9bn ($61bn) in 2018, more than half of global aid – but its contribution was 5.8% lower than in 2017, the European NGO network, Concord, found in its AidWatch report.
Continue reading...Royal pressed to turn over all relevant documents about contacts with financier
Lawyers representing the victims of the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have signalled they are willing to serve a subpoena to Prince Andrew to ensure he cooperates with their investigations.
In a statement on Wednesday announcing he was standing down from public duties, the Duke of York said he was willing to help “any appropriate law enforcement agency” with their investigations after what he accepted was his “ill-judged association” with Epstein.
Continue reading...Duke of York issues statement amid criticism over relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
The Queen has given permission for Prince Andrew to “step back from public duties for the foreseeable future” after days of mounting pressure following his unrepentant interview with the BBC about his friendship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Duke of York also said he was “willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations if required” over the US probe into Epstein.
Continue reading...Cash, drugs and luxury cars were seized after a series of raids on Wednesday
Ten suspected members of an organised crime group have been arrested on suspicion of flying an estimated £15.5m out of the UK to Dubai hidden in suitcases.
The National Crime Agency, whose officers made the arrests in a series of raids across London on Wednesday morning, said the suspects were also suspected of trying to smuggle 17 people into the UK this summer.
Continue reading...PM’s apparent blunder over £12,500 threshold could benefit him amid ‘factchecking’ row
Boris Johnson has said he wants to raise the national insurance threshold to £12,500, letting slip a major Tory tax cut from the manifesto as he was speaking to workers in Teesside.
The prime minister blurted out the key announcement as he was pressed by an employee at a fabrication yard about whether he would help “people like us”, not just the rich.
Continue reading...The announcement by Bond University and RMIT follows the royal’s interview about his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein
Two Australian universities have severed ties with a business mentoring charity founded by Prince Andrew after the royal’s train-wreck interview about his links to the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The Pitch@Palace program – founded by the prince in 2014 – supports entrepreneurs and start-up companies and gives them the opportunity to pitch their idea to business leaders at places including Buckingham Palace.
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