Category Archives: UK news

Cambridge asks Post Office inquiry barrister to lead review into death of Jason Arday

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Jason Beer KC will examine university’s handling of claims against Arday and protection offered to academics in spotlight

The lead barrister for the Post Office Horizon inquiry has been appointed to head an independent review into the death of the Cambridge academic Jason Arday.

Jason Beer KC will examine the handling of allegations of research and other misconduct made against Arday before his resignation as well as the university’s recruitment and support for him as its youngest ever black professor at the age of 37.

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Palestine Action activists used similar tactics to the suffragettes, court told

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Lawyers tell supreme court decision to proscribe organisation as terrorist group is attack on freedom of speech and protest

Palestine Action was banned as a terrorist group after using tactics similar to – or less extreme than – the suffragettes, the UK’s highest court has heard.

Huda Ammori, a co-founder of Palestine Action, is challenging last year’s decision to proscribe the direct action organisation, placing it alongside groups such as al-Qaida and Boko Haram.

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More than 900 academics urge UK to reverse decision to bar Andreas Malm

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Blocking Swedish writer’s entry for event with Palestine Action co-founder is attack on free expression, letter says

More than 900 academics have voiced their opposition to the government’s decision to block the climate academic Andreas Malm from entering the UK, warning that the move represents “a grave violation of academic freedom and freedom of expression”.

Malm, the author of How to Blow Up a Pipeline and a leading climate scholar, was prevented from entering the UK last week by the Home Office after being told that his presence in the UK “may not be considered to be conducive to the public good”.

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Reform UK councillor charged with 12 counts of rape and multiple other offences

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George Madgwick, party leader on Hampshire county council, faces charges related to four teenagers between 2008 and 2021

Reform UK’s leader on Hampshire county council has been charged with 12 counts of rape and one of distributing indecent images of a child.

George Madgwick, 37, who is a councillor in Portsmouth and leads the Reform group on the council, was a prominent voice linked to recent protests in the city connected to the arrival of asylum seekers on small boats.

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British lawyer Dapo Akande elected to UN top court in big diplomatic win

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Akande joining the international court of justice comes a decade after previous British judge failed to get re-elected

A British judge has been elected on to the UN’s international court of justice, in a big British diplomatic victory that comes almost 10 years after a previous British judge failed to get re-elected.

Dapo Akande will now serve as one of the ICJ’s 15 judges for a minimum nine-year term.

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AI-powered malware ‘highly likely’ to be used to hack UK infrastructure by 2028

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National Cyber Security Centre expects attacks on critical facilities such as power stations, airports and hospitals

AI-powered malicious software is “highly likely” to be used in hacking attacks against the UK’s power stations, airports and hospitals by 2028, according to the state cybersecurity body.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said AI will probably enable a ransomware attack against critical national infrastructure [CNI] between now and 2028. The UK’s definition of CNI covers a range of facilities and services across sectors including energy, transport, defence, food, health and finance.

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PM to ask countries affected by UK’s role in slavery to help shape formal apology

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Andy Burnham to launch ‘structured dialogue’ on issue at Commonwealth summit in Antigua and Barbuda

Andy Burnham will ask countries affected by Britain’s role in slavery to help shape an expected formal apology, Downing Street has indicated, arguing that their input is indispensable in crafting an enduring message.

The prime minister was en route to the Commonwealth heads of government summit (Chogm) in Antigua and Barbuda, which begins on Tuesday. No 10 said he would use the event to launch a “structured dialogue” into what form an apology might take.

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Migration is a moral issue for Burnham – but is he trying to please everyone?

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PM wants to tie Shabana Mahmood’s hard line on borders to recognition of the value of migration, but he may need to shout his conviction

While out on the campaign trail in Makerfield, Andy Burnham gave a glimpse into where he might land on Labour’s plans for immigration reform, which had already been decried by the left of the party as unfair while described on the right as electorally necessary.

Asked what he thought of Reform’s attack on “open borders Andy” – Nigel Farage’s early attempt to define him as soft on migration – the then Manchester mayor dismissed the charge as “ridiculous” and went on the defensive.

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Russell Brand is not a ‘psychopath who rapes people and thinks it’s normal’, court told

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Defence barrister says earlier allegations about comedian’s sexual conduct ‘poisoned the wells’ of justice as trial continues

Russell Brand is not a “psychopath who rapes people and thinks it’s normal” and is respectful when women say no, a court has heard.

In his closing speech at Southwark crown court, Brand’s barrister, Ian Winter KC, questioned why Brand’s accusers had not fought back when they were allegedly raped, saying “not one of them resisted or screamed or even tried to leave”.

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Defendant tells court he believed he had consent of woman drugged by her husband

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Connor Sanderson-Doyle is one of four men accused of sexually abusing Joanne Young, who was repeatedly assaulted by her husband, Philip Young

A man has told a court he believed a woman who was repeatedly raped and drugged by her husband had consented when he answered an advert to have sex with her.

Former Tory councillor Philip Young has pleaded guilty to multiple charges of drugging and sexually abusing his wife, Joanne Young, during a 13-year period at their home in Swindon, Wiltshire.

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Mahmood says most care workers will be able to get settlement after 5 years, not 15 as originally proposed – UK politics live

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Home secretary announced 5-year ILR option for care workers won’t apply to people who arrived after May 2025

Downing Street has declined to say how much it cost for the plane carrying Andy Burnham and UK delegates to a Commonwealth leaders’ summit to stop in Manchester to pick him up (see 10.28am), the Press Association reports.

At the morning lobby briefing, asked if this was an appropriate use of public money, the PM’s spokesperson said:

The prime minister’s travel arrangements are made on the basis of security, operational requirements, and value for money for the taxpayer.

The prime minister’s travel arrangements reflect where he was carrying out official government business at the end of last week.

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Newcastle hospital told woman whose unborn baby had died to go home and ‘book a slot to give birth’

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Trust admits Danielle Brown’s baby would have survived had she not been sent home from RVI days earlier

A seven-months-pregnant woman whose unborn baby had died was sent home from hospital with a booklet for bereaved parents and told to book a slot to give birth.

Danielle Brown, 31, had been discharged from hospital with pre-eclampsia, a potentially life-threatening pregnancy complication. She returned to hospital days later where scans revealed that her daughter, Maisie, had died at about 29 weeks.

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EHRC raises concern with Reform about ‘racial and sexual remarks’ in documentary

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Watchdog writes to Nigel Farage’s party to ask what action it is taking to comply with the Equality Act

The official equalities watchdog has written to Reform UK to raise concerns after an undercover TV documentary showed councillors and candidates for the party expressing racist and misogynistic views, with one of the party’s MPs complaining about ingrained sexism.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it had written to Nigel Farage’s party in the wake of revelations in ITV’s Undercover: A Year in Reform, which was broadcast in October.

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Ryanair faces clash with unions as it mulls pay freezes amid soaring fuel costs

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Airline also weighs up reducing crew on flights and increasing use of AI as part of cost-cutting measures

Ryanair has said it is considering implementing pay freezes, setting the scene for a confrontation with unions as the airline tries to offset soaring fuel costs driven by the Middle East conflict.

The airline is also considering reducing crew numbers on flights and increasing the use of AI, in a cost-cutting drive.

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Most Israelis think settlements policy should change to avoid more sanctions, poll finds

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Survey finds UK government’s decision to impose trade ban was not a decisive factor in how Israelis voted in election

The UK government’s decision to impose a ban on trade in goods from illegal settlements was not decisive in how Israelis voted in their general election, but a majority think the Israeli government’s settlements policy should change if it is going to lead to further sanctions, a new poll of Israelis shows.

There had been fierce criticism of the UK foreign secretary Ed Miliband’s decision in September to impose a trade ban and wider sanctions on illegal settlements, with some claiming it would drive Israeli voters into the arms of Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Teenage violinist wins BBC Young Musician 2026, after first all-female final

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Judges hail Sofia Demetriades’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto as full of insights, poetry and maturity

A teenage violinist has won the BBC Young Musician competition 2026, in the first all-female final in the competition’s 48-year history.

The judges, Joanna MacGregor, Ben Gernon and Errollyn Wallen, hailed Sofia Demetriades’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto as full of insights, poetry and maturity.

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Tributes paid to ‘inspiring’ Cambridge scientist who died in Spain train crash

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Dr Marta Shahbazi was travelling to a conference to receive award for scientific excellence in developmental biology

An “inspiring” University of Cambridge scientist died in the Spanish train collision on Wednesday that killed at least 69 people.

Dr Marta Shahbazi, 41, an affiliate associate professor at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and a group leader at the city’s Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), was travelling on one of the trains involved in the crash near Urda in Toledo province.

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How Rachel Reeves has mapped out the economic agenda for Andy Burnham’s government

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On Brexit, devolution and investment, the former chancellor is eerily in tune with the man who sacked her

Which senior politician has argued that “Brexit did deep damage” and that the government seeks “not to turn back the clock but to look toward a new and stable, future relationship?”

It was not Andy Burnham, who has been the torchbearer for thinking the unthinkable on Brexit since he became prime minister. Instead, these are the words of the former chancellor Rachel Reeves, in a lecture six months ago.

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Police detain 325 people at pro-Palestine Action protest at US embassy in London

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Arrests come ahead of Wednesday’s supreme court challenge to the ban on the direct action group

Police have said they arrested 325 people on Saturday at a demonstration outside the US embassy in London against the proscription of Palestine Action.

In updated arrest figures released on Sunday, the Metropolitan police said 320 people were detained outside the building in Battersea, south London, for allegedly expressing support for an organisation banned under the Terrorism Act.

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High street ‘slot farms’ could avoid budget tax rise through bingo hall loophole

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Hundreds of adult gaming centres in England have bingo licences that still qualify them for discounted business rates

Hundreds of high street “slot farms” could continue claiming a discount on their business rates, unless the government closes a loophole that allows them to pose as bingo halls.

John Healey singled out adult gaming centres (AGCs) in his first budget this week, in which he increased duty on slot machine takings from 20% to 25%, claiming he was “raising taxes on gambling to support good growth on every high street”.

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