Category Archives: UK news

Treasury seeks to keep water firm fines earmarked for sewage cleanups

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Exclusive: Restoration fund in England could be ‘siphoned off’ to be used for general government spending, not repairing rivers

Rachel Reeves’s Treasury is looking to keep millions of pounds levied on polluting water companies in fines that were meant to be earmarked for sewage cleanup, the Guardian has learned.

The £11m water restoration fund was announced before the election last year, with projects bidding for the cash to improve waterways and repair damage done by sewage pollution in areas where fines have been imposed.

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Lebedev’s London Live TV channel closes after decade of mounting losses

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Station was crown jewel of Jeremy Hunt’s strategy to populate the UK with dozens of local TV stations

At midnight on Sunday, London Live, the capital’s dedicated TV channel and crown jewel of Jeremy Hunt’s strategy to populate the UK with dozens of local TV stations, will cease broadcasting after a little over a decade.

Back in 2010, the then Conservative culture secretary’s local TV plan was criticised as financially unviable by much of the media industry, but London was the exception.

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Revealed: Conservatives spent £134m on never-used IT systems for failed Rwanda scheme

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Home Office official says data protection laws caused the cost of its forced removal programme to increase

The Conservative government spent more than £130m on IT and data systems for the scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, which will never be used, the Observer can reveal.

Digital tools needed to put the forced removal programme into effect made up the second-largest chunk of the £715m spent in little over two years, behind only the £290m handed directly to Paul Kagame’s government.

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UK to introduce digital driving licences to ‘transform public services’

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The digital option will be made available through a government app, but will not be mandatory

The UK is to introduce digital driving licences this year as the government looks to use technology to “transform public services”.

The digital version of driving licences will be available in a virtual wallet in a government app, instead of being added to existing Google or Apple wallets. It could be accepted as a form of ID when voting, purchasing alcohol or boarding domestic flights.

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Clean water campaigners claim victory in Windermere sewage case

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United Utilities has dropped legal fight to block access to data on the discharge of treated sewage in Lake District

The water company United Utilities has conceded defeat in its legal battle to block public access to data on treated sewage it is discharging into Windermere in the Lake District.

Company officials initially claimed that data from phosphorus monitors at a main sewage treatment works at the lake was not environmental information. The company also wanted to block access to data from Cunsey Beck, a site of special scientific interest, which flows into Windermere.

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Sadiq Khan warns western democracy at risk from ‘resurgent fascism’ ahead of Trump inauguration

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London mayor calls for stricter laws on harmful online content and takes aim at Elon Musk

The west must face up to a century-defining battle against a resurgent far right that is on the march across the developed world, Sadiq Khan warns today, as he calls on ministers to take on extremism ahead of Donald Trump’s second inauguration as US president.

In the most strident rallying call of any senior British politician against the march of the right in the US, France and Germany, the London mayor warns of a “resurgent fascism” online and says that stricter laws on harmful content will be needed to stem the tide.

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‘She would have been in awe of him’: how Laurence Olivier gave Margaret Thatcher private seduction lessons

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New drama, When Maggie Met Larry, reveals exactly how the world’s most famous actor coached the fledgling Iron Lady

In 1972, a nervous Margaret Thatcher went to Laurence Olivier’s London home for a lesson on presentational skills. The most famous actor of the 20th century told the then education secretary to put a book on her head and walk around to improve her deportment. He also advised her to take long confident strides, and to use her eyes to seduce and flirt.

The future prime minister went on to visit Olivier’s house for a further five lessons, details of which are revealed in a new Radio 4 play, When Maggie Met Larry. Starring Derek Jacobi, who joined Olivier’s fledgling National Theatre when only 24, and Frances Barber as Thatcher, the drama tells of the previously unknown advice on style and voice offered to the Tory politician.

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Reform deputy leader Richard Tice splitting time between Skegness and Dubai after partner leaves UK

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MP says he is totally committed to his constituency after Isabel Oakeshott moved to the Emirates

One weekend, it will be the straightforward delights of Skegness seafront; the next, the flashy private beach clubs of Dubai.

Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK and its MP for Boston and Skegness, is splitting his time not just between his Lincolnshire ­constituency and the House of Commons, but is also spending time 3,500 miles away in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). “We are spreading our international reach,” he said.

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UK’s TV workers exposed to ‘illegal or barely legal’ conditions and traumatic content

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Report cites low pay and overwork, and employees complain of receiving no warning before working on disturbing scenes

“Illegal or barely legal” working practices are rife in the UK’s TV industry, new research has revealed.

Workers in post-production roles, including editors, designers and special effects artists, are regularly being paid below the minimum wage and experiencing “unacceptable” conditions, such as hours spent in dark, unventilated rooms and exposure to traumatic content with no warning.

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Phil Hammond, a key figure in the fight for justice over Hillsborough, dies

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Hillsborough Family Support Group pays tribute to man whose 14-year-old son Philip was killed in the disaster

A key figure in the fight for justice after the Hillsborough disaster has died, the campaign group has announced.

Phil Hammond, whose teenage son was killed in the tragedy, was remembered as a “very kind, fair, honest and humble man” by members of the Hillsborough Family Support Group (HFSG) which Hammond chaired, battling for truth and justice over how his son and 96 others died.

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Three more people charged with murder after shooting in north-west London

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Michelle Sadio, 44, died after shots were fired towards mourners outside church in Harlesden

Three more people have been charged with murder after a woman was killed in a drive-by shooting outside a north-west London church.

Michelle Sadio, 44, died after shots were fired in Harlesden at about 9pm on 14 December. She was standing with mourners outside the River of Life pentecostal church after a wake.

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Labour pledges to make Sunday trains as reliable as weekday services

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Government plans to renationalise railways will establish new public body to improve the network

Sunday train services will be as reliable as those on weekdays under plans to renationalise the railways, the new transport secretary will claim in a keynote speech on Monday.

Issuing a series of pledges on which the government will be judged by millions of passengers – as well as its political opponents – Heidi Alexander will cite the creation of a network “where Sunday services are as ­reliable as Monday’s” as one of her key priorities.

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‘Discovered’ diaries of British socialite Unity Mitford reveal Hitler relationship

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Diaries, believed to be genuine, chronicle 139 pre-war meetings between antisemitic aristocrat and Nazi leader

The diaries of an antisemitic British socialite who was obsessed with Adolf Hitler and struck up a personal relationship with the Nazi leader have been discovered, according to the Daily Mail.

The leather-bound journals, which had been lost to historians and unseen for eight decades, appear to reveal the extent of Unity Mitford’s relationship with the dictator.

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Home Office accused of ‘blocking’ people stuck in war zones from joining family in UK

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FoI figures show Home Office apparently refusing to use biometrics waiver for people who have no way to submit them

The UK government’s family reunification policy has been criticised by charities and MPs after data revealed how Home Office bureaucracy was making it impossible for people stranded in war zones, such as Gaza and Sudan, to reunite with family members in the UK.

Existing policy is supposed to allow those in need of resettlement the opportunity to join relatives in the UK. In order to apply for family reunion visas, applicants must submit biometrics – usually a fingerprint and a photograph – at appointments at a visa application centre (VAC) in their country of residence.

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Scotland’s largest haggis maker creating new recipe to meet US rules

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Macsween working to circumvent food regulations that have banned traditional recipe in US for more than 50 years

Scotland’s largest haggis maker is creating a “compliant” recipe of the nation’s most famous dish to circumvent strict American food regulations after more than 50 years in exile.

The decision by Macsween of Edinburgh comes after traditional haggis was banned by the US authorities in 1971, taking issue with the sheep’s-lung component of the recipe, which was then prohibited for use as human food by federal regulation.

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Schools ‘need more help’ to tackle rising number of sexual assaults by pupils

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Charities say better guidance is needed over increasing number of sexual assaults in UK primary schools

Schools must be given clearer guidance on how to handle peer-on-peer sexual abuse among pupils, charities have demanded.

Rape Crisis and other charities wrote to England’s education secretary Bridget Phillipson and Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, last week, calling on the government to step in with clearer statutory guidance on how schools in England and Wales should address sexual violence when both the victim and the alleged perpetrator are pupils.

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British man admits stabbing partner to death in Italy

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Michael Whitbread, 75, is on trial in Lanciano for murder of fellow Briton Michele Faiers, 66, in October 2023

A British man living in Italy has admitted stabbing his partner to death, claiming he did it after she accused him of cheating on her.

Michael Whitbread, 75, told a court he could not remember how many times he stabbed fellow Briton Michele Faiers, 66, in October 2023.

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Starmer urges world leaders to ‘double down’ on support for Ukraine

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PM stressed shared ‘unbreakable commitment to Nato and Ukraine’ with Poland in meeting with Donald Tusk

Keir Starmer has urged world leaders to “double down” in their efforts to support Ukraine during a visit to Poland, days before Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency risks jeopardising international solidarity on the issue.

Speaking alongside the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, after the pair discussed a proposed defence-focused treaty, Starmer dodged questions on the possible impact of Trump, but insisted the only way forward was “peace on Ukraine’s terms”.

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Police fear ‘rightwing driven’ reaction to grooming gangs will harm victims

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Senior officers say fraction of child abuse cases relate to gangs and funding could be diverted from current cases

Senior police officers fear that government pressure to reinvestigate closed historic cases of gang grooming could make it harder to catch those targeting children today.

The government on Thursday announced more reviews of past cases and also that victims, whose cases did not end in prosecutions, will be given a new right of appeal to have their investigations reopened.

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‘One-in-a-billion’ round egg found at farm in Devon to be auctioned

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Rare spherical egg could fetch in region of £200, with proceeds of sale going to charity

A farm worker in Devon has discovered what she believes to be a “one-in-a-billion” spherical egg.

Alison Greene, who has worked as an egg handler on Fenton Farm near the Somerset border for three years and handled more than 42m eggs, said she had never found a perfectly round one before.

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