Category Archives: UK news

Government debt costs in richest nations at highest since 2007

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Payments by OECD countries outstrip amount spent on defence, police services and housing, report finds

The cost of government debt payments in the world’s richest nations last year reached its highest level since 2007, outstripping the amount spent on defence, police services and housing, a report has found.

Across the 38 members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), debt service costs as a percentage of national income rose to 3.3% in 2024, from 2.4% in 2021.

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Second person in two days dies trying to cross Channel in small boat

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Deaths occur after eight-day gap in crossings between, bringing death toll this year to at least 10

One person has died trying to cross the Channel in an overloaded boat, after another person died earlier attempting the same journey, according to the French authorities.

In the latest incident, 15 people were rescued after a boat containing 40 people picked up more migrants on the coast of Gravelines, in northern France, at around 3am on Thursday.

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Disabled people’s access to transport in UK a ‘national embarrassment’, MPs say

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Report from the Commons transport select committee calls for a unified complaints service

Disabled people’s access to transport has been called a “national embarrassment” by MPs on a parliamentary committee, who said a new enforcement regime was needed to uphold their right to travel.

A report from the Commons transport select committee highlighted the experience of people with disabilities in using British transport services, from accounts of wheelchair users left on planes to taxi drivers refusing to take a guide dog, or people being unable to navigate pavements blocked by obstructions.

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Starmer unlikely to fulfil pledge on hospital waiting times, says IFS

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Thinktank predicts PM will not realise ambition for 92% of patients in England to wait less than 18 weeks for planned care by 2029

Keir Starmer is unlikely to fulfil his pledge to restore the maximum 18-week wait for planned hospital care before the next election, a leading thinktank has said.

The prime minister has made bringing back the 18-week access standard in England, by ensuring that 92% of patients are seen within that time, one of the six “milestones” he has promised to achieve by 2029.

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UK cybersecurity agency warns over risk of quantum hackers

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Organisations including energy and transport firms told to guard systems against powerful new computers

The UK’s cybersecurity agency is urging organisations to guard their systems against quantum hackers by 2035, as the prospect of breakthroughs in powerful computing threaten digital encryption.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued new guidance recommending large entities including energy and transport providers introduce “post-quantum cryptography” in order to prevent quantum technology being deployed to break into their systems.

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UK watchdog bans ‘shocking’ ads in mobile games that objectified women

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Investigation uncovered eight adverts that portrayed women in a harmful or degrading way, says ASA

An investigation by the UK advertising watchdog has found a number of shocking ads in mobile gaming apps that depict women as sexual objects, use pornographic tropes, and feature non-consensual sexual scenarios involving “violent and coercive control”.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) used avatars, which mimic the browsing behaviour of different gender and age groups, to monitor ads served when mobile games are open and identify breaches of the UK code.

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More than 110 child sextortion attempts reported each month to UK police forces

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National Crime Agency launches awareness campaign, saying criminals are adapting methods and using AI

UK police forces are receiving more than 110 reports of child sextortion attempts every month, according to the National Crime Agency, as a new awareness campaign is launched about the online scourge.

The NCA said the use of artificial intelligence in sextortion attacks had also increased “substantially” over the past three years as criminals adapted their methods.

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British couple held by Taliban due in court on unknown charges, family say

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Peter Reynolds, 79, and wife, Barbie, 75, expected to appear in Kabul on Thursday after detention last month

A British couple in their 70s imprisoned by the Taliban are due in court in Kabul on Thursday but have not been informed of the charges, their family has said.

Peter Reynolds, 79, and his wife, Barbie, 75, who run a training business in Afghanistan, were detained last month when they travelled to their home in Bamiyan province.

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Minister refuses to rule out more benefit cuts amid backlash over Liz Kendall move to slash disability payments – UK politics live

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Stephen Timms, social security and disability minister, says ‘who knows what will happen in next five years’ as welfare bill is increasing even with cuts

Matt Hancock, the former Tory health secretary, has just started giving evidence to the Covid inquiry as part of its inquiry into PPE procurement.

There is a live feed here.

Of course people who can work should work - no one is questioning that - but for my relatives, friends and neighbours, and your constituents who have the misfortune to suffer from a chronic, debilitating, long-term condition that leaves them bed-bound, unable to leave their home or crushed by mental illness, these cuts will not motivate them to get back to work, it will instead scare and humiliate them and strip them of their dignity and self respect and for some it will send them to an early grave. The blame for this will lie squarely with you and the sycophants within your party who passively support these dreadful cuts.

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Pioneering Devon food forest garden at risk after landowner serves notice

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Thousands sign petition to save ‘vital’ Dartington Estate project that teaches agroforestry methods

Even at this time of year when most of the trees are still bare, there is a feeling of abundance in Martin Crawford’s forest garden, close to the banks of the River Dart in Devon.

Crawford, who has nurtured this landmark garden for three decades, is clearly in his element, pointing out the edible plants that flourish in the tangly two-acre patch, stooping from time to time to pick a leaf or green shoot and take a nibble.

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Santander to close 95 UK branches, putting 750 jobs at risk

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Bank says 18 other outlets will become ‘counter-free’ and further 36 will operate reduced hours

Santander is to close a fifth of its branches in the UK as part of an overhaul of its network, putting 750 jobs at risk.

The retail bank said it would shut 95 out of its 444 high street outlets, and reduce the services or hours at a further 50-plus branches, by June to “better serve the changing needs of customers”.

Aberdare 24 June

Arbroath 17 June

Armagh 1 July

Blackwood 23 June

Blyth 5 August

Bognor Regis 14 July

Borehamwood 1 July

Brecon 25 June

Brixton 11 August

Caernarfon 7 July

Camborne 7 July

Canvey Island 5 August

Clacton 16 June

Cleveleys 23 June

Colne 14 July

Colwyn Bay 24 July

Crowborough 23 July

Croydon 16 June

Cumbernauld 7 July

Didsbury 8 July

Downpatrick 6 August

Dungannon 23 June

Edgware Road London, 12 August

Eltham 23 June

Exmouth 15 July

Falmouth 21 July

Farnham 29 July

Felixstowe 16 July

Finchley 6 August

Fleet 30 June

Formby 11 August

Gateshead 16 June

Glasgow St Vincent St, 24 June

Glasgow The Avenue, Newton Mearns, 23 June

Greenford 24 June

Hackney 15 July

Hawick 24 July

Herne Bay 8 July

Hertford 29 July

Holloway 14 July

Holywell 13 August

Honiton 14 July

Kidderminster 18 June

Kilburn 17 June

Kirkby 22 July

Launceston 16 June

Louth 17 June

Magherafelt 24 June

Malvern 2 July

Market Harborough 1 July

Musselburgh 30 June

New Milton 28 July

Peterhead 16 June

Plympton 14 August

Portadown 30 June

Pudsey 28 July

Rawtenstall 15 July

Ross-On-Wye 30 July

Ruislip 7 July

Rustington 5 August

Saltcoats 21 July

Seaford 15 July

Shaftesbury 23 July

Sidcup 11 August

St Austell 8 July

St Neots 30 July

Stokesley 31 July

Strabane 23 July

Surrey Quays London, 10 November

Swadlincote 30 June

Tenterden 7 July

Torquay 17 June

Tottenham 8 July

Whitley Bay 6 August

Willerby 13 August

Wimborne 4 August

Wishaw 22 July

Bexhill

Billericay

Dover

Droitwich

Dunstable

East Grinstead

Holyhead

Ilkley

Larne

Lytham St Annes

Maldon

Morley

North Walsham

Redcar

Saffron Walden

Turriff

Uckfield

Urmston

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Peer who led government NHS review failed to declare shares in health firms

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Lord Darzi’s undeclared interests in four companies included $500,000 of shares in US-based healthcare venture

The independent peer Lord Darzi, a senior adviser to the government on the NHS, failed to officially declare shareholdings in healthcare companies worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Ara Darzi is an eminent surgeon and professor at Imperial College London whose report on the NHS for the government in September informed the decision announced last week by the health secretary, Wes Streeting, to abolish NHS England. Darzi also has an extensive portfolio of private interests in commercial medical companies.

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Rising bill for benefits has wreaked ‘terrible human cost’, says Keir Starmer

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PM defends welfare cuts amid disquiet in Labour over plan charities say will push more disabled people into poverty

The rising benefits bill is “devastating for public finances” and has “wreaked a terrible human cost”, Keir Starmer has said as he defended the government’s drastic changes to the welfare system.

Writing in the Times, the prime minister said “the facts are shocking”, noting one in eight young people were not in education, employment or training and 2.8 million working-age people were out of work because of long-term sickness.

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Two men found guilty over £4.8m Oxfordshire gold toilet heist

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Michael Jones convicted of planning Blenheim Palace burglary and Frederick Doe of conspiracy to transfer criminal property

Two men have been found guilty of the theft of a £4.8m gold toilet from the Oxfordshire country house where Winston Churchill was born.

Blenheim Palace’s 18-carat lavatory was stolen in September 2019 while it was featuring in an art exhibition and is believed to have been split up and disposed of.

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Covid inquiry: ex-minister defends VIP contract lane despite ‘one or two crooks’

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Lord Agnew says fast-track PPE procurement was not ‘some kind of plan by rightwing people to enrich themselves’

A former minister behind the controversial VIP lane for supplying personal protective equipment during the pandemic said “some crooks” were probably awarded contracts, but defended the scheme as necessary to plug shortages.

Lord Agnew, who was a Cabinet Office minister responsible for procurement during the pandemic, accused the Covid inquiry of having a “misconceived obsession with the high-priority lane”.

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Woman found Noel Clarke ‘sexually threatening’ at dinner, court told

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Accuser, who was 20 at the time, says she was frightened of the actor when he propositioned her in 2014

A “wide-eyed” 20-year-old woman found Noel Clarke “sexually threatening” and was frightened of him when he propositioned her over dinner, the high court has heard.

Clarke, 49, is suing Guardian News and Media (GNM) for libel over seven articles and a podcast published between April 2021 and March 2022 accusing him of sexual misconduct.

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Luton triple-murderer wanted to gain notoriety with school plot, court hears

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Nicholas Prosper, 19, planned to kill 30 pupils and two teachers after shooting his mother, brother and sister dead

A 19-year-old man who shot dead his mother and two younger siblings had planned to kill 30 children at a primary school, a court has heard.

Nicholas Prosper, from Luton, Bedfordshire, had wanted to carry out the killing at his former primary school to gain notoriety as a mass murderer, and had been planning it for months.

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Downing Street rejects Lammy’s claim Israel broke international law in Gaza

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Foreign secretary receives rare public rebuke as No 10 rows back by saying Israel ‘at risk’ of breaching rules

Downing Street has rejected David Lammy’s assessment that Israel has broken international law by blocking aid to Gaza, in a rare public censure for the foreign secretary.

A spokesperson for the prime minister said on Tuesday morning Israel was “at risk” of breaching humanitarian law, despite Lammy having told the Commons on Monday that the country had definitely done so.

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Performing arts leaders issue copyright warning over UK government’s AI plans

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In a statement, 35 signatories from dance, theatre and music industries express concern about ‘fragile ecosystem’

More than 30 performing arts leaders in the UK, including the bosses of the National Theatre, Opera North and the Royal Albert Hall, have joined the chorus of creative industry concern about the government’s plans to let artificial intelligence companies use artists’ work without permission.

In a statement they said performing arts organisations depend on a “fragile ecosystem” of freelancers who rely on copyright to sustain their livelihoods. They also urged the government to support the “moral and economic rights” of the creative community in music, dance, drama and opera.

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Ikea to open Oxford Street store in May after 18-month delay

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Swedish furniture retailer’s arrival is seen as crucial to hopes of reviving the London shopping street

Ikea will be bringing its mix of meatballs, lampshades and kitchen planning to London’s Oxford Street from 1 May, when the world’s largest furniture retailer finally opens its store 18 months late.

The company said its three-floor outlet, in the former Topshop base, would house a 130-seat Swedish deli and showrooms, as well as offering one-to-one design consultations.

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