Category Archives: UK news

River campaigners to sue Ofwat over water bill rises

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Group claims regulator signed off on ‘broken system’ making customers pay for industry’s neglect

An environmental group is to take legal action against Ofwat, the water regulator, accusing it of unlawfully making customers pay for decades of neglect by the water industry.

River Action will file the legal claim this month, arguing that bill rises for customers that have been approved by the regulator could be used to fix infrastructure failures that should have been addressed years ago.

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Town hall leaders condemn ‘ill-thought-out’ plan to merge English councils

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Survey reveals senior officials think changes will do little to address local authorities’ dire financial crisis

Ministers’ plans to shake up the structure of English local government by merging councils are “ill-thought-out”, “insane” and a “bizarre diversion” that will fail to deliver savings, according to a survey of town hall leaders.

The depth of unhappiness with the plans is revealed in an annual poll of senior councillors and executives, most of whom said the changes would be costly, time-consuming and do little to address the dire financial crisis facing councils.

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‘I was devastated’: MP hopes her story will help improve maternity care for disabled women

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Exclusive: Marie Tidball tells of her experiences with NHS as report finds 44% higher risk of stillbirth for disabled women

When doctors tried to work out whether Marie Tidball would need a specially designed birth plan, one asked her to lie fully clothed on the bed and spread her legs in the air so they could see how far they could open.

The incident was one of several occasions when Tidball, now a Labour MP, felt neglected during her pregnancy and early motherhood because of the NHS’s failure to adapt on account of her physical disabilities. Tidball has physical impairments affecting all four of her limbs and had major surgeries on both her hips and legs as a child.

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Child dies after car driven on to sports pitch in Cumbria

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Man in his 40s arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving at rugby club in Kendal

A child has died and another has been injured after a car was driven on to a sports pitch in Cumbria, police said.

Cumbria police were called at 4.58pm on Wednesday to reports of a collision involving a black BMW and two children on a pitch at Kendal Rugby Union Football Club.

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UK, France and Germany say Gaza aid freeze could breach international law

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Ministers issue joint statement after Israel cuts off supplies in effort to push Hamas to accept change in ceasefire deal

Britain has joined Germany and France to warn that Israel could be in breach of international law by halting the entry of aid into Gaza, which is facing a “catastrophic” humanitarian crisis.

The foreign secretary, David Lammy, signed a joint statement with his French and German counterparts to urge Israel and Hamas to engage constructively to get ceasefire talks back on track.

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Conservative peer accused of using antisemitic tropes in Lords debate

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Archie Hamilton said Jewish community in Britain ‘has an awful lot of money’ and should pay for proposed Holocaust memorial

A Conservative peer has been accused of using antisemitic tropes after saying in a debate in the Lords that Jewish people should pay for a proposed Holocaust memorial in London because they have “an awful lot of money”.

Archie Hamilton, who served as a minister under Margaret Thatcher and John Major and was made a peer in 2005, was criticised after the debate, which was about whether to put the memorial and education centre in Victoria Tower Gardens, next to parliament.

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Starmer highlights UK’s war record in implicit rebuke to Vance as Lib Dems mock Badenoch for defending him – as it happened

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Interventions follow US vice president’s comments about ‘20,000 troops from some random country that has not fought a war in 40 years’. This live blog is closed

In response to a question about intelligence cooperation with the US, Sir David Manning, a former ambassador to Washington, said he thought this would become “more difficult” because there was a problem of trust. He explained:

If you have some of Trump’s appointees in these key jobs who have very strange track records, and have said very strange things about Nato allies, the Nato alliance and so on, and you have people in the administration who seem to be, let’s say, looking for ways of appeasing Russia, then you have a problem on the intelligence front, because these are not the values that we have.

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Green light for £1.2bn ‘bulk mail’ claim against Royal Mail owner to go to trial

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Class action accuses International Distribution Services of abusing ‘dominant position’ in market

A £1.2bn class action claim accusing the owner of Royal Mail of abusing its “dominant position” in the market for sending bulk mail has been given the green light to proceed to trial by UK competition authorities.

Bulk Mail Claim Ltd, a recently formed company representing an estimated 290,000 customers who claim they were overcharged as a result of Royal Mail’s behaviour, has won clearance to proceed with its legal challenge from the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).

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Foxtons boss says firm has ‘more to do’ on workplace culture

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Comments follow report alleging that estate agency company’s junior staff faced inappropriate behaviour

The chief executive of Foxtons has admitted that the company has “more to do” on workplace culture, after a report alleging that junior employees at the real estate agent had faced unwanted touching and other forms of harassment.

Guy Gittins, who started his career at Foxtons in 2002 and returned as chief executive three years ago, said that the company remained “steadfast in our commitment to an inclusive, professional and respectful culture”, as it reported its full-year results for 2024.

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Some British firms ‘stuck in neutral’ over AI, says Microsoft UK boss

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Survey of bosses and staff finds that more than half of executives feel their organisation has no official AI plan

Some companies are “stuck in neutral” in their approach to artificial intelligence, according to Microsoft’s UK boss, who said a significant number of private and public sector organisations lack any formal AI strategy.

A Microsoft survey of nearly 1,500 UK senior leaders across public and private sectors, as well as 1,440 employees, found that more than half of executives feel their organisation has no official AI plan. Roughly the same proportion report a growing gap in productivity – a measure of economic efficiency – between employees who use AI and those who do not.

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London exhibition explores design based on needs of nature and animals

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Curator of Design Museum show says ‘human-centric’ approach to design needs overhaul amid climate crisis

Designers need to “fundamentally rethink our relationship with the natural world”, according to the curator of a new exhibition which argues the needs of nature and animals should be considered when creating homes, buildings and products.

Justin McGuirk, the curator of the upcoming More Than Human exhibition at the Design Museum in London, said our current “human-centric” approach to design needs to be radically overhauled as the world adapts to the climate crisis.

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VE Day 2025: Tower of London poppies to return to mark 80th anniversary

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Four days of events planned in Britain to commemorate eight decades since end of second world war in Europe

For the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day the Cenotaph will be draped in union flags and there will be a military procession and flypast as well as a new installation of about 30,000 ceramic poppies at the Tower of London, it has been announced.

Four days of commemorations will begin on the bank holiday Monday of 5 May in tribute to the millions of people across the UK and Commonwealth who served in the second world war.

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Boy, 16, dies after being shot in south London

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Metropolitan police officers working to identify teenager and contact next of kin after killing in Stockwell

A 16-year-old boy has died after being shot in south London on Tuesday afternoon, the Metropolitan police have said.

Police were called at 3.21pm to reports of a shooting on Paradise Road near Stockwell tube station. Paramedics from the London ambulance service and the air ambulance travelled to the scene but the boy was pronounced dead.

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Woman charged with murder of her two-year-old daughter in Hampshire

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Alice Mackey, 42, remanded in custody over death of Annabel Mackey, who was found in a pond in 2023

A 42-year-old woman has been charged with the murder of her two-year-old daughter who died after being found in a pond.

Police were sent to a report that Annabel Mackey had gone missing from her home in Kingsley near Bordon, Hampshire, on 10 September 2023.

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Starmer welcomes Zelenskyy’s offer to work with Trump on Ukraine peace deal – as it happened

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PM says any deal must be ‘lasting and secure’ following fiery Trump-Zelenskyy meeting last week and UK weekend summit. This live blog is closed

Lisa O’Carroll is the Guardian’s acting Ireland correspondent.

Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s first minister, has described a decision to build thousands of lightweight missiles for Ukraine in a Belfast factory as “incredulous”.

I find it really incredulous that at a time when public services are being cut left, right and centre.

At a time when we have endured 14 years of austerity ... I think at a time like that, rather than buying weapons of war, I would rather see the money invested in public services.

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Rachel Reeves vows to use defence spending to support UK’s ‘left behind’ industrial towns

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Chancellor says increased military spending should support ‘British jobs and British industries’

Rachel Reeves has said UK companies and jobs will be prioritised under the government’s plans for a significant increase in defence spending, with an aim to support “left behind” industrial towns and the economy at large.

Announced by Keir Starmer last week amid growing fears over Donald Trump’s commitment to European security, the government will increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 – worth an additional £6bn a year.

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British activist Jagtar Singh Johal acquitted in India terror trial

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Human rights campaigner still faces threat of death penalty if found guilty of further charges

Jagtar Singh Johal, the British human rights activist accused of terrorism has been acquitted on all charges in a case in Punjab, after a court rejected the allegations against him made by Indian authorities.

Johal has been held in detention for seven years awaiting judgment, but must remain in prison since he is facing eight essentially duplicate cases brought by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) based on the same alleged confession.

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UK ban on zero-hours contracts ‘to include agency workers’

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Government to expand coverage of employment rights bill, according to report

Agency workers will reportedly be included in a ban on “exploitative” zero-hours contracts as part of changes to the UK government’s employment bill.

Under the new rules, employers will have to offer agency workers a contract that guarantees a minimum number of hours every week, the BBC reported.

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Leader of UK’s black police officers under investigation over tweet

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Exclusive: Andy George says misconduct inquiry over tweet about Chris Kaba case officer ‘stifles free speech’

The leader of Britain’s black and Asian police officers has been placed under investigation over a tweet.

Ch Insp Andy George, the president of the National Black Police Association, said the decision to place him under a misconduct investigation “sends a chilling message” and “stifles free speech”.

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