Labour peer says in meantime it is essential to try to reduce damage of Brexit deal struck by Boris Johnson
Peter Mandelson has suggested the UK could start talks on rejoining the EU in 10 years’ time, much earlier than Keir Starmer believes.
Lord Mandelson told an audience in Edinburgh the “truth is that [reversing Brexit] could be a conversation which starts in 10 years’ time”, but only if EU member states were willing to consider it.
Continue reading...Survivor of blaze which killed 72 ‘disgusted’ Quentin Marshall gave £5,000 to candidate promoting deregulation
One of Kemi Badenoch’s Tory leadership campaign funders is a councillor who had oversight of Grenfell Tower and dismissed some residents’ complaints about the pre-fire refurbishment as “grossly exaggerated”.
One survivor of the blaze that killed 72 people said he was “disgusted” that Quentin Marshall, a senior politician at the Conservative-controlled Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) which owned the block, has given £5,000 to the current shadow housing secretary to help her become the leader of the opposition.
Continue reading...Assessment finds detention unit is subjecting families to ‘unnecessary suffering’ amid lengthy Home Office delays
Young children are being traumatised while held at a Gatwick airport deportation centre that should be closed down, a watchdog has found.
The independent monitoring board (IMB) also said the children’s parents were being subjected to “callous treatment and unnecessary suffering” because of the Home Office’s lengthy decision-making process over removals.
Children are witnessing or overhearing their parents’ “considerable distress” at their expected deportation, despite staff efforts to shield them.
Children are being asked by staff to translate for their distraught parents, despite having been taken from their homes and facing removal to a country they may know very little about.
The use of the Family PDA may prolong or add to trauma already experienced, particularly for children.
Continue reading...Conservation trust says Boki ‘not out of the woods’ yet but doing well after operation to drain buildup of fluid
A brown bear that underwent brain surgery in the first operation of its kind in the UK is doing well but is “not out of the woods” yet, a charity has said.
Boki went under the knife on Wednesday after an MRI scan revealed he had hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid in the brain.
Continue reading...BMJ case report reveals potential overuse injury after man in his 30s has surgery to remove large lump on his head
Going breakdancing today? If so, maybe go easy on the headspins. Unless you want to end up with a “cone-head”, that is.
Breakdancing’s extreme physical demands mean it is known to involve a high risk of injury: everything from hair loss to sprains and damage to almost every part of the anatomy.
Continue reading...Police discovered ‘much-loved’ Martin Forgie dead at property in Ellon on Wednesday
A 44-year-old man has been arrested after the death of a “much-loved” 36-year-old man in Aberdeenshire.
At about 8.35pm on Wednesday, police were called to a property in the town of Ellon, where Martin Forgie was found dead.
Continue reading...Industry bosses to meet prime minister before government’s international investment summit next week
The leaders of the world’s biggest green energy companies have promised more than £24bn of new private investment across Great Britain ahead of a meeting with the prime minister on Friday.
Keir Starmer is expected to meet the green energy bosses on the sidelines of the first Council of Nations and Regions in Edinburgh to discuss the multibillion-pound projects just days before the government’s international investment summit next week.
Continue reading...Bill will give new rights to millions of workers including protection from third-party harassment
Employers must protect their workers from sexual harassment – including from customers and clients – under the government’s sweeping new employment rights bill.
The new obligation is part of a series of measures published in Thursday’s landmark employment bill, which Labour had promised to lay before parliament within 100 days.
Continue reading...Exclusive: private message from whips aims to crackdown on discipline, telling MPs to speak with ‘one voice’
Labour MPs have been warned that they must not put down any amendments on government bills and must resolve disagreements privately with ministers, in a crackdown on discipline in parliament.
In a private message, seen by the Guardian, Labour whips told MPs that they could no longer act as if they were in opposition and said amendments suggested a lack of trust in the government. The message said MPs should be speaking with “one voice” in public.
Continue reading...Downing Street indicates no change in position on Ukraine’s request to fire Storm Shadow weapons into Russia
The UK has not lifted restrictions on Ukraine using long-range missiles after Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit, Downing Street has said.
The Ukrainian president met Keir Starmer in No 10 on Thursday and reiterated his request to fire Storm Shadow missiles and other western-supplied weapons deep inside Russian territory.
Continue reading...TRG says both candidates have ‘used rhetoric and focused on issues which are far and away from … the values we cherish and uphold’
Robert Jenrick, one of the final two Tory leadership candidates, is delivering a speech in London. There is a live feed on his X account.
Jenrick started by promising “a complete break with Labour’s failing agenda”. He said:
The real choice this country faces is between Labour’s failing agenda and the new approach I want us to take, the new approach we need as a country.
Because if I am chosen as the next leader of this party we will stand to offer a complete break with Labour’s failing agenda.
Continue reading...Mark Rutte says US would risk isolation if Republican candidate decided to withdraw from military alliance
Mark Rutte, the new head of Nato, has brushed off anxieties about the possible election of Donald Trump, arguing that the US would risk isolation in “a harsh, uncompromising world” if he sought to withdraw from the military alliance.
Speaking in London on Thursday, after meeting the prime minister, Keir Starmer, and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Rutte said he believed both Trump and his presidential rival, Kamala Harris, recognised the value of continuing military aid to Ukraine.
Continue reading...Brwa Shorsh, 24, found guilty of attempted murder after postman pushed into path of oncoming train at Oxford Circus station
A homeless man who pushed a stranger on to the tracks of the tube has been jailed for life with a minimum term of eight years.
Brwa Shorsh, 24, was sentenced on Thursday at Inner London crown court after being found guilty of attempted murder, in an attack a judge said would “strike fear into every traveller on the Underground”.
Continue reading...Composite images of Endurance compiled from 25,000 digital scans mapped by underwater robots
More than a century after it sank below the icy Weddell Sea in Antarctica, forcing its crew to embark on one of the most celebrated survival quests in history, new images have revealed the remarkable state of preservation of Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance.
The famed vessel, which sank in 1915 after becoming stuck in pack ice, was discovered in 2022 resting at a depth of 3km below what Shackleton called “the worst portion of the worst sea in the world”.
Endurance will be at London film festival on 12 October, in UK cinemas on 14 October and on Disney+ later this year.
Continue reading...Hitachi digger tracked down to town of Pruchnik, with arrangements made to reunite it with its owner
A digger stolen from a development site in Dorset has been found five months later and 1,200 miles away in a rural town in south-eastern Poland.
Dorset police received a report on 1 April that a Hitachi digger and a JCB digger had been stolen in the small town of Ferndown, near Bournemouth.
Continue reading...Dove maker’s deal with local manufacturer Arnest Group includes four factories
Unilever has sold off its Russian operations to a local manufacturing group after pressure from campaigners who claimed that the presence of the Dove and Ben & Jerry’s owner in the country was supporting the war in Ukraine.
Arnest Group, a Russian manufacturer of perfume, cosmetics and household products will take control of Unilever Rus, which includes four factories, as well as the group’s interests in Belarus. Arnest is owned by the businessman Alexey Sagal and bought the brewer Heineken’s business in the country last summer.
Continue reading...Former BBC host, with millions of social media followers, was arrested in Australia following alleged attack on woman in Perth hotel room
The British rapper, YouTuber and television personality Yung Filly has been arrested in Australia and charged with rape and assault.
The 29-year-old, born Andrés Felipe Valencia Barrientos, who was on tour in the country, was arrested in Brisbane and taken to Perth where the alleged incidents occurred.
Continue reading...The chancellor desperately needs more money to finance growth and public spending so expect a bit of tweaking to supposedly strict constraints
Change*. If Labour’s one-word campaign slogan had an asterisk, it would have directed voters to Rachel Reeves’s budget.
Later this month the chancellor will attempt to walk the line between repairing Britain’s battered public realm, while sticking to a manifesto promise to balance the books without raising taxes on working people.
Continue reading...Employment rights legislation has been widely heralded by trade unions despite some commitments being watered down
Rogue employers will be targeted by a beefed-up new enforcement agency to protect sweeping changes to rights at work for millions of Britons, set to be outlined in a “watershed” bill published on Friday.
The Fair Work Agency will be created as part of the government’s employment rights legislation, which will include stronger protections against unfair dismissal and exploitative contracts.
Continue reading...Thinktank says tax increases in budget will be necessary even if Rachel Reeves changes fiscal rules
Keir Starmer’s promise to end austerity and rebuild public services will require tax increases of £25bn a year in the coming budget even if debt rules are changed to provide scope for extra investment spending, a leading thinktank has said.
In its preview of the first Labour budget in 14 years, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said Rachel Reeves would need to raise taxes to fresh record levels to meet the government’s policy goals. The chancellor was also warned of the risk of a Liz Truss-style meltdown if the City responded badly to substantially higher borrowing.
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