Exclusive: Departures will add to scrutiny of party leader after Elon Musk said he was ‘not up to the job’
A group of 10 councillors representing Reform UK have given notice of their intention to resign en masse in protest at Nigel Farage’s leadership.
The resignations will add to pressure on the Reform leader after Elon Musk said he was “not up to the job”. They are timed to overshadow the party’s south-east conference this weekend.
Continue reading...Weapons such as sharpened objects and rocks taken from children aged 15-18 at YOI Wetherby
Almost 900 weapons were seized in one year from children detained in a young offender institution in the north of England, a prisons watchdog has found.
In its annual report published on Friday into HM young offender institution Wetherby in West Yorkshire, the institution’s independent monitoring board found that children were in possession of a range of improvised weapons. The children told IMB they carried the weapons because they felt unsafe behind bars.
Continue reading...Azov, a volunteer brigade, plans to form international battalion to boost numbers as Ukraine heads into fourth year of war
Ukraine’s highest profile combat unit is seeking English-speaking recruits at a time when the impending presidency of Donald Trump means that Kyiv is expected to come under intense pressure on the battlefield.
Azov, a volunteer brigade whose decade-old nationalist origins have made it a target of Russian propaganda, plans to form an international battalion to boost its numbers as Ukraine heads into a fourth year of full-scale war.
Continue reading...Protesters planned to gather outside BBC HQ, which is near a synagogue, on the Jewish holy day
Mark Rylance, the star of the BBC’s Wolf Hall, has joined the singer Charlotte Church and actor Juliet Stevenson to condemn a decision by the police to ban a pro-Palestine protest outside the corporation’s Broadcasting House headquarters.
Protesters were planning to gather in Portland Place in central London on Saturday 18 January before marching to Whitehall. A ban was imposed on Thursday by the Met, with officers citing the risk of “serious disruption” to a nearby synagogue on the Jewish holy day, as congregants attend Shabbat services.
Continue reading...‘Shocking incident in which teenage boy has lost his life as a result of knife crime and serious youth violence,’ says DI leading the investigation
Three teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 17-year-old was fatally stabbed near Bedford bus station, police have said.
Thomas Taylor, 17, was attacked by a group of males at 5.50pm on Wednesday as he walked along Greenhill Street, close to the town centre bus station, officers said.
Continue reading...Thomas Kingston, son-in-law of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, had been prescribed SSRIs
A coroner has issued a warning about the effects of antidepressants prescribed by a Buckingham Palace doctor to the son-in-law of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent before his suicide.
Thomas Kingston, 45, whose marriage to Lady Gabriella at Windsor Castle in 2019 was attended by the late Queen, killed himself last February after “suffering adverse effects of medication he had recently been prescribed”, an inquest found last month.
Continue reading...Committee says it wants urgent update on support for hospitals declaring critical incidents under winter pressure
MPs have written to Wes Streeting, the health secretary, asking for his action plan to help the 14 hospitals declaring critical incidents under winter pressure.
The health and social care committee wrote to Streeting on Friday asking him to spell out “what specific immediate additional support, including financial support” would be provided to trusts declaring critical incidents.
Continue reading...Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s relatives demand compensation from Italian firm Leonardo six years after his death
The family of Leicester City’s former owner, who was killed in a helicopter crash outside the club’s stadium in 2018, have launched a lawsuit against the company which made the aircraft.
Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s family are suing the Italian aerospace and defence company Leonardo SpA for £2.15bn – the largest fatal accident claim in English history, according to the family’s lawyers.
Continue reading...Morgan McSweeney met EU counterparts before Christmas as Downing Street poised to hire new foreign adviser
Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, made a below-the-radar trip to Brussels last month, as No 10 prepares to appoint its own foreign affairs adviser to help bolster the Downing Street policy operation.
As the UK’s attempts at a “reset” with the EU continue behind closed doors, No 10’s most senior aide made the trip to meet counterparts in Brussels before Christmas.
Continue reading...Culture secretary says it should go ahead despite pressure for it to be cancelled over Taliban’s treatment of women
England should be allowed to play next month’s cricket match against Afghanistan, the culture and sport secretary has said, despite calls for a boycott over the Taliban government’s treatment of women.
Lisa Nandy backed a decision by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to allow the game to go ahead, saying on Friday that cancelling it would “deny sports fans the opportunity that they love”.
Continue reading...There are also fears electronic travel authorisation will threaten post-peace tourism sector in Northern Ireland
The UK Home Office’s already burdened immigration services could be overwhelmed this summer when a new visa-waiver system comes into force for European business travellers and tourists in April, a leading law firm has said.
There have also been fresh warnings that the electronic travel authorisation (ETA) requirements could threaten the post-peace tourism sector in Northern Ireland, with Americans and Europeans travelling to Dublin and beyond deciding not to bother crossing the border because of the red tape.
Continue reading...Royal College of Radiologists calls move ‘shortsighted’ and says it puts Labour’s waiting times plan at risk
Dozens of NHS hospitals have banned their cancer or diagnostic units from hiring new staff, despite GPs referring growing numbers of people who they fear may have the disease.
Doctors warned that widespread recruitment freezes imposed on both types of units over the last year risked undermining Keir Starmer’s drive, outlined this week, to cut waiting times for NHS care.
13 of 54 cancer centres (24.1%) had a recruitment freeze imposed on them last year, along with 29 out of 150 (19.3%) radiology departments.
The 42 hiring bans were imposed by 40 different NHS trusts or boards.
At least one freeze was implemented in each of the four home nations and each region of England.
Continue reading...Resale prices could be capped at 30% over face value, while resale websites face greater legal obligations
The price at which tickets for live events can be resold is to be capped under “gamechanging” proposals put forward by the government to crack down on touting in the sector.
In a move hailed by music industry figures, the culture minister, Lisa Nandy, has launched a consultation that she said would end the “misery” of fans being exploited by touts, some of whom have made huge profits by selling hundreds of tickets a year.
Continue reading...Martin Rosenbaum fought for 18 months to reveal who had supported nominations of two former special advisers
The reasons given for a peerage awarded by Boris Johnson have been described as “inadequate” and a “mystery” by a freedom of information campaigner after an 18-month struggle.
Charlotte Owen, a former special adviser in the Conservative government, was appointed to the House of Lords in Johnson’s resignation honours list in 2023.
Continue reading...Scotland Yard imposes Public Order Act owing to proximity of Broadcasting House to a nearby synagogue
Scotland Yard has banned a pro-Palestine march from gathering outside the BBC’s London headquarters next week, owing to its proximity to a synagogue.
Protesters were planning to gather outside Broadcasting House in Portland Place on Saturday before marching to Whitehall. On Thursday evening, police said they had imposed the Public Order Act to prevent the rally from gathering in the area as it risked causing “serious disruption” to a nearby synagogue on the Jewish holy day, as congregants attend Shabbat services.
Continue reading...Labour’s description of 16,400 ‘immigration offenders and foreign criminals’ angers campaigners
Keir Starmer has boasted of deporting a record number of refused asylum seekers and overseas criminals since scrapping the Rwanda scheme, using language that has dismayed human rights campaigners.
The Home Office said on Thursday it had returned more than 16,400 “immigration offenders and foreign criminals” since the election in July, the highest six-month total since 2018.
Continue reading...Family ‘heartbroken’ after discovery of body of John George, 37, who went missing in Alicante area in December
A murder investigation is under way in Spain after the body of a 37-year-old man from Northern Ireland was found three weeks after he went missing.
John George from Belfast, a father of two children, was in Spain for a short visit in December but the alarm was raised when he failed to board a flight home on 18 December.
Continue reading...UK foreign secretary plays down idea of Trump taking control, in speech exposing differences with president-elect
The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has said a US military seizure of Greenland is not going to happen, as he played down Donald Trump’s threats to seize the territory from Denmark.
“No Nato countries have gone to war [with each other] since the establishment of Nato, and I do not envisage that,” he said, adding: “It is not going to happen.”
Continue reading...UK borrowing costs rise again, with analyst warning ‘things are also getting rather ugly’
The pound has fallen to a 14-month low against the US dollar as the sell-off in the bond market fuelled investors’ anxiety over UK assets and piled further pressure on the chancellor, Rachel Reeves.
As the bond sell-off gathered steam, sterling lost a cent against the US dollar, extending recent losses, falling to about $1.226.
Continue reading...Snow, ice and fog yellow weather warnings remain in force across the UK as snow and sleet cause disruption to transport
It’s a very cold morning in Ireland with widespread frost and ice lingering, says the Irish meteorological service, Met Éireann.
In a post on X, Met Éireann said:
Sunny spells will develop later with just a scattering of cloud in a cold northerly breeze.
A few isolated wintry showers will drift in over Connacht and Ulster for a time but elsewhere should hold dry.”
Continue reading...