Category Archives: UK news

UK government contacts potential administrators for Thames Water

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Teneo, Interpath and EY among those reportedly approached for the role if company falls into bankruptcy

The UK government has reportedly approached multiple restructuring advisers for the role of special administrator for Thames Water if the troubled utility falls into bankruptcy.

Teneo, Interpath and EY are among the companies contacted by the government as it prepares contingency plans should Britain’s largest water company be forced into nationalisation, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the process.

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Almost 40 firms banned from installing UK insulation amid botched jobs outcry

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Schemes backed by previous government to improve energy efficiency have left homeowners unable to sell

Almost 40 building companies have been blocked by the government from installing insulation amid a growing outcry over the profusion of botched jobs across the UK.

Ministers also announced that any homes found to have received botched insulation would have the issues put right by the installer responsible at no extra cost to the homeowner.

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Government overturns Tory measure and bans emergency use of bee-killing pesticide

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Emergency use of Cruiser SB, a neonicotinoid pesticide highly toxic to bees, to be outlawed in UK in line with EU

Bee-killing pesticides have been banned for emergency use in the UK for the first time in five years after the government rejected an application from the National Farmers’ Union and British Sugar.

The neonicotinoid pesticide Cruiser SB, which is used on sugar beet, is highly toxic to bees and has the potential to kill off populations of the insect. It is banned in the EU but the UK has provisionally agreed to its emergency use every year since leaving the bloc. It combats a plant disease known as virus yellows by killing the aphid that spreads it.

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Southport killer Axel Rudakubana jailed for minimum of 52 years for murder of three girls at a dance class in 2024 – as it happened

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Rudakubana, 18, sentenced for murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe and attempted murder of 10 others

The legal counsel for the defence and prosecution have entered court.

The prosecution is led by Deanna Heer KC, with her junior Philip Astbury.

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Labour MPs ordered to sink landmark climate and environment bill

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Exclusive: Supporters of bill say Labour has already insisted on removal of clauses requiring UK to meet targets agreed at Cop and other summits

A landmark bill that would make the UK’s climate and environment targets legally binding seems doomed after government whips ordered Labour MPs to oppose it following a breakdown in negotiations.

Supporters of the climate and nature bill, introduced by the Liberal Democrat MP Roz Savage, say Labour insisted on the removal of clauses that would require the UK to meet the targets it agreed to at Cop and other international summits.

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Woman jailed over crash that killed baby outside hospital in Haverfordwest

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Bridget Curtis, 71, admitted causing death of eight-month-old Mabli Cariad Hall after losing control of car

A woman has been jailed for four years for causing the death of an eight-month-old baby girl in a crash outside a hospital after losing control of her car while reaching for a handbag.

Bridget Curtis, 71, collided with a pram carrying Mabli Cariad Hall as she was being pushed by her father, Rob Hall, outside Withybush hospital in Haverfordwest, south-west Wales.

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Croydon stabbings: man ‘fended off attacker with fire extinguisher’

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Suspect, 30, arrested after five people injured at distribution centre on south London industrial estate

A man has described how he fought and fended off a knife-wielding attacker with a fire extinguisher after barricading himself and others inside an office of a warehouse where five people were injured during a mass stabbing.

Police arrested a 30-year-old man after the attack at a warehouse close to a supermarket in Croydon, south London, on Thursday morning.

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UK family awarded thousands over stale croissants and ‘mouldy’ hotel in France

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Family complained food was ‘uneatable’ and room was dirty and smelly at four-star Club Med hotel in Provence

A British family who claimed they “went home miserable” from a luxury French hotel after they were given stale croissants and a smelly room have won thousands of pounds in damages.

Damen Bennion, 52, told his children “Daddy would get things sorted” when they arrived at their holiday in Provence and found the four-star hotel did not meet their expectations.

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Family of jailed dissident urge Lammy to prioritise case as he visits Egypt

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‘Moment of truth’ for UK foreign secretary over Alaa Abd El Fattah, who is still being held in a Cairo prison

The family of the jailed British-Egyptian writer Alaa Abd El Fattah have urged the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, to prioritise the dissident’s release above trade deals during his visit to Egypt.

Fattah remains in a Cairo jail even though his sentence for dissent has been served. His mother is on a hunger strike in London with her health now deteriorating.

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Jack Lowden joined by Martin Freeman in alcoholism drama The Fifth Step

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Lowden first appeared in David Ireland’s two-hander in Edinburgh last year. For its West End run, he is paired with his ‘hero’ Freeman

Slow Horses star Jack Lowden is to reprise his role in The Fifth Step, a play about addiction, faith and masculinity, in a new West End production co-starring Martin Freeman.

Lowden first appeared in the drama, written by David Ireland, at the Edinburgh international festival last year and drew acclaim for his performance as an alcoholic, Luka, who joins the 12-step programme. The two-hander starred Sean Gilder as Luka’s older mentor, a part that will be played by Freeman in the production at @sohoplace in London, running from 10 May until 26 July. Finn den Hertog will again direct.

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Unpaid internships ‘locking out’ young working-class people from careers

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UK charity calls for positions of four weeks or longer to be banned to help close social mobility gap

Young people from working-class or disadvantaged backgrounds are being “locked out” of careers by unpaid or low-paid internships that benefit middle-class graduates, according to a social mobility charity.

Research by the Sutton Trust found that middle-class graduates made more use of internships as stepping stones into sectors such as finance or IT, even in cases where the internships paid nothing or below the minimum wage as required by legislation.

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Child mental health admissions to acute wards in England rise 65% in a decade

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Hospital wards struggle to cope with rising cases of self-harm and eating disorders, the study warns

The number of children admitted to acute hospital wards in England due to serious concerns over their mental health has increased by 65% in a decade, with a particularly alarming surge in girls who have self-harmed, research reveals.

Doctors are treating almost 40,000 children with acute mental ill health in general wards every year, up from about 24,000 10 years ago. The increase is six times higher than the rise in admissions of children for all conditions (10.1%) over the same period.

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Closing UK parliament’s bars could put MPs at risk, says Commons leader

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Lucy Powell said MPs and their aides would be ‘less well protected’ if they drank outside the Palace of Westminster

Closing all bars on the parliamentary estate could lead to security risks for MPs, the leader of the House of Commons has said.

The famous Strangers’ Bar in the Palace of Westminster has been temporarily closed while police investigate an alleged spiking incident. It is understood to have taken place on 7 January at about 6.30pm.

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Kevin Clarke’s family denounce police discipline system after officers cleared

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Two Met officers denied hearing Clarke say ‘I can’t breathe’ before he died under restraint in 2018

The family of a black man who died after being restrained by police officers who denied having heard him say “I can’t breathe” have condemned the police discipline system after two officers were cleared of gross misconduct.

Kevin Clarke, 35, died while in police custody in 2018, with the restraint having lasted more than 30 minutes.

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PMQs live: Starmer to face Badenoch after announcing plan to end teenage access to knives online in wake of Southport attack

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PM to face Tory leader following decision to announce tougher checks for people buying knives online

A new online train ticket retailer backed by the UK government is to be created, the Department for Transport (DfT) has announced, with the aim of simplifying the process of buying tickets from different rail operators. Joanna Partridge has the story.

PMQs is almost with us.

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Prince Harry settles legal claim against Sun publisher

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NGN apologises to royal ‘for phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators’

The Duke of Sussex has settled his high court legal action at the eleventh hour against the publisher of the Sun, News Group Newspapers (NGN).

NGN offered “a full and unequivocal apology” to Prince Harry “for the phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them” at the News of the World.

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UK borrowing jumps unexpectedly, adding to pressure on Rachel Reeves

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Increase to £17.8bn is well above City forecasts and is highest December figure for four years

UK government borrowing jumped unexpectedly to £17.8bn last month, piling pressure on Rachel Reeves to plan budget cuts before a spending review in the summer.

The figure was about a quarter higher than the City had forecast and was up by £10.1bn more than in the same month a year earlier, making it the highest December borrowing for four years.

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Burning wood for power not necessary for UK’s energy goals, analysis finds

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Experts say UK should stop biomass burning as electricity sector decarbonisation by 2030 can be achieved without it

The UK should stop burning wood to generate power because it is not needed to meet the government’s target of decarbonising the electricity sector by 2030, according to analysis.

Ed Miliband, the energy security and net zero secretary, is expected to make a decision soon on whether to allow billions of pounds in new public subsidies for biomass burning, despite fierce opposition from green groups.

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‘When I’m not Trump, I’m just Mike’: UK impersonator enjoys re-election boom

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Mike Osman, aka ‘Donald Trumped’, from Southampton, says he is expecting busiest year of career

A British Donald Trump impersonator is looking forward to an “unstoppable” four years, thanking the American president for providing him with a pension pot for his retirement.

Southampton-based Mike Osman, a 65-year-old comedian, said his income had increased by between 30 and 40% since Trump was re-elected and he was expecting to have the busiest year of his career.

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