Ex-Asda boss Andy Bond linked to plan, with buyout team understood to be negotiating with financial backer
Poundland’s management team are in “advanced talks” to lead a bid for the ailing cut-price retailer that could save up to 11,000 jobs.
The former Asda boss Andy Bond, who ran Poundland for a number of years from 2016 then stepped up to its former parent Pepco before leaving in 2025, is understood to be part of the negotiations to take on the business.
Continue reading...PM says he is looking at all options and ministers will examine ‘what is doable’ and the ‘pros and cons’
Andy Burnham has opened the door to the UK rejoining the EU, saying Britain could “go all the way”, as he prepares to reconsider Labour’s post-Brexit red lines.
The prime minister used a series of interviews after his emotional Labour conference speech to spell out how wide-ranging his consideration of Britain’s future with Brussels could be because Brexit had caused “more harm than good”.
Continue reading...US cannabis and drinks firm Tilray, which took over in March, says it will improve beers, pubs and working conditions
BrewDog’s new owner has urged drinkers to give the ailing brand “a second chance” as it invests more than £50m in improving the company’s beers, pubs and working conditions.
The US cannabis and drinks company Tilray bought BrewDog for £33m in March this year, after the company collapsed into administration after five years of losses and a series of controversies relating to the treatment of workers under the founder James Watt.
Continue reading...PM accepts some of his plan could be difficult and admits he ‘may pay a political price’
Andy Burnham has staked his future on a gamble that the public will back radical progressive policies on social care, electoral reform and Europe, telling voters that his agenda will break the mould of the last 40 years and “allow us to rise again”.
In a deeply personal speech at Labour’s conference, Burnham began building his next general election manifesto, acknowledging that he may end up paying the price for creating sharp new dividing lines in politics.
Continue reading...PM, in first speech to party conference as leader, insists his plans are a ‘good deal’ for older people
Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, has apparently confirmed that Andy Burnham will float the prospect of getting rid of the pensions triple lock to help fund the creation of an NHS-style care service.
Asked about the prospect on Sky’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Rayner said that Burnham was “absolutely right to start the conversation” and that he was being “brave”.
The high principle on this is that people have paid in all their lives. They are willing, I think, to look at that.
What they don’t want is what they consider to be, quite frankly, incompetent politicians that are going to take something from us to fill a black hole.
When we met with Andy [Burnham] this week, it certainly wasn’t mentioned.
But I do think that it’s important that Labour make sure that working-class people know that they’re on their side, and this would be a direction of travel that would say the opposite to that.
What I understood the national care service to be was a universal benefit: everybody paid in and everybody gets out, and that is what actually the principle of that is.
Going to a group of people who are getting around £12,500 a year in order to pay for it to take away their security is wrong.
Continue reading...PM’s speech, written almost entirely alone, was full of radicalism but his biggest plans will have to wait until after the next election
Hope Again is the conference slogan. But what felt even more apt was Try Again.
Just forget about the last two years, after the party won a historic majority but where the mood never matched the achievement. Now, as conference delegates and MPs filed out of the hall after Andy Burnham’s first speech as prime minister, it was close to euphoria. Where the hell have you been all our lives? What have we been doing – when you were right there all along?
Continue reading...Tehran has been trying to step up attacks on targets in the west but its track record has been mixed
Investigators may be some way from determining exactly what led five men with three vans to a village just outside RAF Fairford in the small hours of Sunday – but the fact they have all been released on bail without immediate charge suggests they are not deemed to pose a serious and violent threat.
In a moment where wider geopolitical tensions mean external threats are perceived to be close, the question of whether Iran had a hand in the alleged plot remains open. Nonetheless, the bailing of the men is a mercifully lower-key development in an investigation that appeared of the utmost gravity.
Continue reading...Amid conflicting statements, local MP and councillors demand answers over how suspects were allowed to enter residential areas of nearby village
An MP and councillors representing the residents of the village near RAF Fairford who were evacuated due to a suspected terror plot have expressed scepticism and concern over the security response to threats made by Iran.
About 85 properties in Whelford, Gloucestershire, were evacuated on Sunday morning after five men were arrested on suspicion of explosives offences in the village. The men, who were later re-arrested on suspicion of terror offences, were released on bail on Monday.
Continue reading...Former journalist and honorary life president of Norwich City FC died peacefully at home on Monday
Michael Wynn-Jones, the journalist and husband of the TV chef Delia Smith, has died at the age of 85.
Wynn-Jones was honorary life president of Norwich City football club, which said everyone at the club was “deeply saddened” by his death.
Continue reading...Row comes amid rising division and a tendency towards cynical political posturing in Northern Ireland
Three decades ago, it took the deaths of three Roman Catholic children – the Quinn brothers, Jason, nine, Mark, 10, and 11-year-old Richard – in a petrol bomb attack to bring an end to the Drumcree dispute. “No road is worth a life, let alone the lives of three little boys,” the Orange Order’s County Armagh chaplain said at the time.
It is perhaps extraordinary to think that this could ever have needed saying – but that was then. Northern Ireland is very different place today.
Continue reading...The counter terror police say the investigation has led to multiple lines of new enquiry
Speaking at the Labour party conference in Liverpool, the defence secretary, Wes Streeting, said he could not give further details about the RAF Fairford incident because there is a live police investigation.
However, he used his speech to stress that the UK-US relationship is “the closest alliance” of any two countries in the world, adding the two nations will always “stand together” against those who wish to cause harm.
Continue reading...The chancellor announced a new local apprenticeship service to boost opportunities for young people
Lisa O’Carroll is a senior Guardian correspondent.
The head of the SDLP, Claire Hanna, has called for an international mediator to resolve the continuing crisis over a unionist parade in a nationalist area close to Drumcree, the site of some of the worst violence of the troubles almost 30 years ago.
The truth is everybody has got to want to seek mediation and seek compromise and that’s what I’m trying to find, whether there’s that little chink on both sides that we can use to get to a decent compromise that means everybody can walk away with their head held high and their sense of honour.
Police say alleged offences could have been committed ‘knowingly or unknowingly’ on behalf of a foreign state
Five men arrested over a suspected bomb plot at RAF Fairford have been released on bail as police investigate why they were so close to the airbase in three vans with suspicious material in the back.
The five suspects were revealed to be British men, all in their 20s and from London. They had been arrested in the Gloucestershire countryside early on Sunday morning on suspicion of explosives offences and preparing an act of terrorism, with an Iranian link a key line of inquiry.
Continue reading...Official says deaths – and dozens of injuries – were probably caused by crushing on boat carrying 105 people
A 10-year-old child and two women died attempting to cross the Channel on Monday, French authorities have said.
Their deaths and the injuries of dozens of others in a large dinghy were probably caused by crushing, according to a French official.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary will tell party’s conference ‘we are not here to accept the status quo but to change it’
Ed Miliband will tell campaigners and party members who raised the plight of Palestinians they were right that Labour’s approach had not been enough, saying he was heeding the calls of millions of people by imposing sanctions on Israeli settlements.
The foreign secretary will tell the Labour party conference that the government will take more explicitly progressive foreign policy positions under Andy Burnham, and that the UK will be a leader among like-minded countries in a new age of diplomacy.
Continue reading...Conference delegates grateful ousting Starmer has paid off, but relief tempered by fiscal headwinds ahead
Even Andy Burnham’s closest allies accept that deposing Keir Starmer to install their man as leader was a huge political gamble. But if the mood at the Labour party conference in Liverpool is anything to go by, it is one that – so far – has paid off.
The contrast with last year, when Starmer retained his grip on the party and Burnham slunk away from Liverpool early, could not be more stark. Their relief at their turn of fortune is tempered only by the fiscal headwinds ahead.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Move by Shabana Mahmood comes after closure of Afghan scheme last year but experts say numbers too small to deter Channel crossings
Shabana Mahmood will announce a new legal route for refugees that prioritises Afghan women and girls and Palestinians, unfreezing a scheme that will put the most vulnerable refugees on a faster path to permanent status.
The change marks a shift in Mahmood’s approach to asylum seekers after the abrupt closure of the Afghan resettlement scheme last year and changes that will keep refugee status under constant review for two decades.
Continue reading...Work and pensions secretary says the current system is flawed because it consigns too many people to a life on benefits when they would be better off working
‘I can deliver’: Burnham pledges radical change on eve of Labour conference
Kuenssberg puts it to Burnham that, according to the Health Foundation, a system offering adult social care free at the point of delivery (like healthcare delivered by the NHS) would cost £18bn.
Burnham says the cost is “not that high” (ie, not as high as £18bn).
Not that high.
But can I directly deal with this issue of the costs?
Louise Casey is still doing an official review for us, so I will set out the vision, if you like, on Tuesday [in his speech to the conference].
Louise will then help us with the how. How do we make this happen? When can we make it happen?
Continue reading...Exclusive: UK prime minister says delivering fiscal stability would be ‘crucial’ to be able to fix bigger problems
Andy Burnham has said he can deliver on his promise of radical change for the country despite severe economic headwinds, telling the Guardian: “There’s always things you can do; it’s just whether you’re prepared to do them.”
The prime minister acknowledged public finances were “challenging” ahead of next month’s budget but said delivering fiscal stability would be “crucial”, because only then would the government be able to focus on fixing bigger problems.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Policy initiative for England will help more young people on to property ladder, prime minister tells Guardian
A new help-to-buy scheme aimed at giving first-time buyers who cannot rely on the “bank of mum and dad” is to be introduced in a big policy announcement by Andy Burnham.
The programme, called “Your first home”, is intended to help buyers in England who have a regular income but have been unable to save for a large deposit or don’t have financial support from their family.
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