Category Archives: UK news

NHS bosses reportedly worried about Starmer’s pledge to cut waiting lists

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PM expected to set target to carry out 92% of routine operations and appointments within 18 weeks

NHS bosses are said to be privately concerned about Keir Starmer’s ambitious targets to cut waiting lists for routine operations, set to be announced later this week, which will also include specific targets on living standards and housebuilding.

The prime minister is expected on Thursday to set a target for 92% of routine operations and appointments to be carried out within 18 weeks, one that has not been achieved in almost a decade, the Times has reported.

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More than three-quarters of UK universities join fossil fuel pledge, say activists

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Move to exclude fossil fuel firms from investment portfolios follows years of campaigning by staff and students

More than three-quarters of UK universities have pledged to exclude fossil fuel companies from their investment portfolios, according to campaigners.

The move, which is part of a wider drive to limit investment in fossil fuels, follows years of campaigning by staff and students across the higher education sector.

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UK house prices rise at fastest rate in nearly two years

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Nationwide reports surprise growth despite near-record prices straining affordability

House prices in the UK grew at the fastest rate in nearly two years in November, in a surprise acceleration despite near-record highs straining affordability, according to figures from Nationwide.

The annual growth rate rebounded to 3.7% in November, up from 2.4% in October, according to the UK’s biggest building society. That was the fastest rate since November 2022.

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Henry I’s luxurious tower at Corfe Castle reopens to visitors after 378 years

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A National Trust viewing platform at Corfe Castle offers visitors a glimpse into the king’s royal quarters in Dorset

A luxurious suite of “rooms with a view”, built for the son of William the Conquerer but partly destroyed in the English Civil War, has become accessible to visitors for the first time in almost 400 years, thanks to a new viewing platform at one of England’s most dramatically situated castles.

The King’s Tower was built in 1107 for William’s son Henry I at Corfe castle, which sits on top of a steep hill on the Purbeck peninsula near Wareham in Dorset. Constructed from gleaming white limestone inside the imposing fortification, the 23-metre tower was Henry’s personal penthouse, built to the highest standards of luxury and including an “appearance door” from which he could be seen by his subjects far below.

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New plan would ‘transform’ end of life care for 100,000 in England and Wales

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Palliative care commission set up to provide high-quality, holistic support following assisted dying vote

MPs, doctors and charities have drawn up a blueprint to deliver an “unprecedented transformation” of care for 100,000 people a year in the final stages of their lives.

After parliament’s historic vote last week to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales, a commission on palliative care has been set up to help improve end-of-life care.

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Many unable to access eVisas to prove right to be in UK, Home Office admits

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Campaigners say problems with digital transfer could affect hundreds of thousands of people on ‘10-year route’ visas

The Home Office has admitted that many people who have the right to live and work in the UK cannot access their eVisas and provide proof that they are allowed to be in the country.

Human rights campaigners have said problems with accessing eVisas could lead to a scandal involving hundreds of thousands of people. Those affected are allowed to be in the UK but cannot show their right to work or rent a home.

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Weather blamed for small boat arrivals under Labour passing 20,000

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Home secretary to highlight data showing record number of calm autumnal days that made Channel crossings likely

The number of small boat arrivals since Keir Starmer took power has passed 20,000, with the Home Office claiming a record number of calm autumnal days in the Channel was responsible.

A 31-day period in October and November had the highest ratio of so-called “red days” – when weather conditions make crossings likely or very likely – since records began in 2018, according to a leaked analysis.

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Putin may have wanted Skripal dead over what he knew, UK officials believe

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Ex-spy had information about Putin’s ‘embezzlement’ of profits from metals production, intelligence official says

Vladimir Putin may have ordered the assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal because the former Russian spy harboured secret information about the Russian president’s “criminal embezzlement” of profits from metals production, the UK government believes.

A leading intelligence official on Russia has said he took “at face value” Skripal’s assertions that secrets he knew about how Putin may have made money led to the nerve agent attack on him in Salisbury.

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Former Tesco boss wants to send power from Morocco to Great Britain using subsea cable

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Dave Lewis says the near-constant stream of clean electricity could supply the grid as early as 2030

In the south-west of Morocco, a sprawl of wind and solar farms stretching across an area the size of Greater London could soon generate the green electricity powering more than 9m British homes.

This is the unflinching vision of Sir Dave Lewis, the former Tesco boss who is hoping to build the world’s longest subsea power cable in order to harness north Africa’s renewable energy sources and power Britain’s clean energy agenda.

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What are the allegations against MasterChef’s Gregg Wallace?

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A slew of accusations have emerged of inappropriate remarks and behaviour dating back as far as 19 years

Gregg Wallace has been accused of making sexualised jokes and other inappropriate remarks towards a range of women dating back nearly two decades.

The 60-year-old MasterChef presenter announced last week that he was stepping back from the BBC show amid an investigation into his conduct. Wallace’s lawyers have said it is entirely false to suggest he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.

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Boss of takeover target Direct Line wants time to turn around insurer

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New management at struggling firm, which rejected £3.3bn bid from Aviva, ‘making excellent progress’, says CEO

The Direct Line chief executive, Adam Winslow, has appealed to shareholders to give his team more time to turn around the struggling insurer, faced with an unsolicited £3.3bn offer from Aviva, while its bigger rival is trying hard to drum up support from investors for the takeover.

The two companies – the UK’s biggest insurer, Aviva, and the Churchill owner, Direct Line, known for motor cover and its red phone on wheels mascot – are facing off in a takeover tussle that has sent the Direct Line share price soaring, amid speculation that Aviva could raise its offer or launch a hostile bid, or face a counterbid.

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Be careful with drinks while travelling, says mother of British lawyer who died in Laos

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Simone White, 28, was one of six tourists to die in a suspected methanol poisoning at Vang Vieng hostel

The mother of a British lawyer who died after being served a drink that was allegedly spiked with methanol has said if it can happen to her daughter it can happen to anyone.

Simone White, 28, from Orpington, Kent, was one of six tourists killed in the popular backpacking town of Vang Vieng after an alleged mass poisoning. She was taken in for surgery just as her mother, Sue, 61, arrived at the hospital. It later became clear that Simone’s brain function was gone, and she died on Thursday 21 November.

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Cheaper loans on table to urge UK motorists to EVs, plus cuts in fines for firms

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Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds says there is ‘no route to net zero’ that ignores concerns of businesses after wave of closures

• Jonathan Reynolds: If we delay the UK’s drive for electric vehicles, our rivals will overtake us

There is “no route to net zero” that ignores the real concerns of businesses, a cabinet minister has warned, as the government prepares to reduce financial penalties handed to carmakers not selling enough electric cars.

Ministers are also looking at how cheaper loans could be introduced to help people buy an electric vehicle (EV), after a wave of job losses and closures in which carmakers blamed the onerous fines they were facing.

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‘We live on Pot Noodles’: rickets hits homeless families with no kitchen

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Families placed in hotels in England are being forced to live on snack foods, putting young people’s health at risk

Homeless children placed in hotels are developing rickets and other diet-related health problems because their parents lack anywhere to cook.

The Magpie Project, which works with homeless mothers in the east London borough of Newham, where more households are living in temporary accommodation than anywhere in the country, said families living in hotels were eating an unhealthy diet of takeaways and snack foods because they had no cooking facilities or anywhere to store fresh produce.

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Claws are out as Jaguar heads down EV rebrand road

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A new electric model will be unveiled this week. Will it turn round the culture war embroiling the marque?

When German manufacturer BMW took over the Mini brand and launched the Mini Cooper in 2001, some people were outraged. Drivers with previous models even slapped on bumper stickers reading “this is a real Mini”. The BBC reported that executives insisted the car “is not a small BMW”.

The storm died down, and Mini has gone on to sell more cars each year (about 300,000) than ever before, many of them emblazoned with union jack tail-lights – whatever the ownership of the factory.

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More than 600 Brazilians deported by Home Office on three secret flights

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Record number of deportees includes children who may have spent most of their lives in the UK

More than 600 Brazilians, including 109 children, have been secretly removed from the UK – on the three largest Home Office deportation charter flights in history – since the Labour government came to power, the Observer has learned.

The Home Office has never before removed any nationality in such large numbers on individual deportation charter flights. It is thought that children have never before been removed on these flights.

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Letter from 1300 in support of Scottish hero William Wallace goes on display

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Fragile, rarely seen artefact sent by the King of France was briefly available for public view on St Andrew's Day

An important letter in support of Scottish hero William Wallace has been put on display on St Andrew’s Day.

More than 250 people turned up on Saturday to see the fragile document, which was only on display for five hours to protect it from too much daylight.

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UFO expert not ruling out Russia or China links to drones seen at RAF bases

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Sightings over three airbases in East Anglia could relate to foreign powers’ concerns about possible nuclear weapons

A British former UFO hunter has said he does not “rule out” recent drone incursions over RAF bases in England being connected to Russia and China and nuclear weapons.

Unidentified drones were spotted in November over three airbases in the east of England that are used by the US air force (USAF).

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Teenager dead and another ‘critical’ after Merseyside motorbike crash

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Police say vehicle was missing at the scene and that other men were present when fatal incident occurred

A teenager has died and another is in “a critical condition” after a motorbike crash in Merseyside, police have said.

A 17-year-old boy was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash in Woodchurch, Wirral. An 18-year-old boy was taken to hospital where he remains in a critical condition.

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