Category Archives: UK news

Tony Blair’s essay on Labour failings gets full marks for being unhelpful

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Intervention by former PM almost feels designed to inflict maximum annoyance on his party

Did Tony Blair ever mention he was quite good at winning elections? If you happened to miss it, then his 5,700-word opus on where Labour, Keir Starmer and the UK more generally have gone wrong is here to remind you. Several times.

“I led the Labour party for 13 years and through three general elections,” goes the second sentence. Further on, Blair laments that when the party tries to puzzle out how to win a second term, the one thing ruled out was “learning from the only time in the party’s 120-year history it has ever done so”.

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Tony Blair tells Starmer and rivals: abandon net zero and move closer to Trump

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In highly unusual intervention, ex-PM says his party’s ‘almost infinite capacity for self-delusion’ makes it likely to lose next election

Tony Blair has accused Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting of putting Labour’s future at risk by abandoning the centre ground, warning that the party’s “almost infinite capacity for self-delusion” means it is likely to lose the next election.

In a scathing 5,700-word attack on the prime minister and his would-be successors published on Tuesday night, Blair argued for the government to crack down on welfare spending, abandon restrictions on oil and gas and smooth relations with Donald Trump.

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Inquiry into Post Office Horizon scandal faces five-year delay without extra funding

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Police officer in charge says budget could reach £19.3m and nearly 100 more investigators are needed

The police criminal inquiry into the Post Office Horizon IT scandal faces a five-year delay unless it is handed millions in extra funding and nearly 100 more staff, according to the chief officer in charge.

The Metropolitan police commander Stephen Clayman said he needed to nearly double the number of investigators to 210 to meet a deadline of late next year or early 2028 for submitting files to prosecutors.

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Reform UK civil service plan ‘would sack more planning officers than exist’

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Analysis of party’s proposed cuts also suggests it would get rid of two-thirds of psychologists who support prison staff

A Reform UK plan to cut the size of the civil service would involve sacking more planning officers than exist and getting rid of at least two-thirds of the psychologists who support prison officers’ welfare, it has emerged.

The policy paper, led by the Reform MP Danny Kruger and published in December, promises to save more than £5bn a year by cutting civil service roles, with the full-time-equivalent (FTE) headcount falling by 13%.

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Labour says Reform UK ‘in chaos’ as Zia Yusuf publicly tells Jenrick he’s got party’s deportation policy wrong – UK politics live

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‘Robert’s answer is not Reform policy’, Yusuf said about an answer that Jenrick gave to journalists days earlier

Keir Starmer has said that SNP leaders need to explain why they did not realise that Peter Murrell was stealing more than £400,000 from the party.

Asked about yesterday’s court proceedings in Edinburgh, where Murrell admitting embezzling money from the party to spend on luxury goods, Starmer said:

I think anybody looking at what’s happening up in Scotland will be baffled that those at the top of the SNP say they didn’t know anything about what was going on, so clearly there are questions that need to be answered.

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UK records highest ever May temperature for second day in a row

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Temperature reaches 35C at Heathrow on Tuesday after 34.8C high at Kew Gardens in London on Monday

The UK has recorded its highest-ever May temperature for the second consecutive day, as thermometers hit 35C (95F) at Heathrow and Kew Gardens in London, the Met Office said.

The latest high was recorded the day after the country’s provisional hottest meteorological spring temperature, of 34.8C in Kew Gardens in south-west London. The previous May peak of 32.8C had stood since 1922.

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Jury sworn in at trial of Jeffrey Donaldson for alleged sex offences

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Trial of former DUP leader expected to last four weeks alongside trial of facts for wife, Eleanor, on charges of aiding and abetting

The jury in Jeffrey Donaldson’s trial for alleged sex offences has been sworn in, launching one of the most high-profile trials in recent Northern Irish history.

The former MP and Democratic Unionist party (DUP) leader entered Newry crown court on Tuesday amid a heavy police and media presence for the trial which is expected to last about four weeks.

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Woman guilty of killing stepdaughter, five, by scalding almost 50 years ago

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Janice Nix convicted of manslaughter after brother of Andrea Bernard alters account of incident in 1978

A woman has been found guilty of killing her five-year-old stepdaughter by punishing her in a scalding hot bath almost 50 years ago.

Andrea Bernard’s death in 1978 in Thornton Heath, south London, was treated as an accident until the girl’s older brother, Desmond Bernard, went to police in 2022 with a new account of what happened, Isleworth crown court heard.

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UK consumers likely to face higher prices ‘for many months to come’

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Data shows even if Iran war ends, shop price inflation on rise, while only 16% of firms left unscathed by conflict

Higher prices could persist over the summer even if ceasefire talks between the US and Iran bear fruit, consumers have been warned, with economic shock waves likely to be felt “for many months to come”.

Disruption to global shipping, coupled with soaring prices for energy and raw materials, have driven up costs for UK companies, with the impact already filtering through to prices paid at the tills, according to fresh inflation figures.

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Trial of Jeffrey Donaldson for alleged sex offences to begin in Newry

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Former DUP leader faces charges spanning 21 years in case that triggered political earthquake in Northern Ireland

The trial of former Democratic Unionist party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson for alleged sex offences is set to begin in a case that triggered a political earthquake in Northern Ireland.

Donaldson, 63, is charged with rape, gross indecency and other sexual offences spanning 21 years. His wife, Eleanor Donaldson, 60, is charged with aiding and abetting rape and indecent assault and will be subject to a trial of facts.

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Record May highs sweep across France as extreme heat hits western Europe

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Mercury in Spain also climbs to well above normal with weather event set to continue for several more days

More than 350 French towns have recorded their highest-ever temperatures for May as France and the UK set national heat records amid an extreme early-summer heat event that could see the mercury rise to 40C in parts of Spain by the end of the week.

The UK’s Met Office said the country’s all-time record for May was broken when a temperature of 34.8C was recorded at London’s Kew Gardens.

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Nurseries in England charging extra fees to cover funding gap, campaigners say

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Head of Early Years Alliance says additional charges paid by parents represent ‘cross-subsidy’

Parents of nursery children in England are being charged extra fees to cover for government underfunding of free childcare hours, with some paying thousands of pounds a year for consumables such as food, wipes and nappies, campaigners have said.

The comments came as the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, asked the competition watchdog to investigate hidden extra charges that parents have encountered when trying to access government-funded childcare.

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Starmer urged to intervene in ‘rigged’ Indian prosecution of British human rights activist

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Senior lawyers call on prime minister to request Indian prosecutors drop charges that would breach double jeopardy rule

Four senior lawyers, including the former attorney general Dominic Grieve, have written to Keir Starmer urging him to request that Indian prosecutors drop charges against the British national Jagtar Singh Johal on the basis that continued prosecution would be in manifest breach of the double jeopardy rule which prevents someone being tried twice for the same offence.

Johal has been held in an Indian jail for eight years, and in March last year was acquitted of the terrorist charges laid against him in a court in Punjab. The court found the prosecutors had “miserably failed” to present any reliable evidence, despite having had seven years to do so.

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‘I’m going to get his ass’: YouTuber beats all-time cheese-rolling champion

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Tom Kopke, from Germany, out-tumbled local hero Chris Anderson to win his third roll on hot day in Gloucestershire

It was billed as the great cheese-off; a helter-skelter, bone-jarring downhill race between the all-time champ and a young upstart.

After the hype and hyperbole, youth won out, as the 24-year-old German YouTuber Tom Kopke beat 38-year-old local hero Chris Anderson at the annual cheese-rolling event in the English West Country.

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UK records its hottest ever day in May as temperature hits 34.8C

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Scientists say record-breaking heat is a reminder of how climate crisis is affecting lives

The fierce heat sweeping across Europe over the bank holiday weekend has beaten the UK’s all-time temperature record for May, with scorching highs of close to 35C.

A temperature of 33.5C was recorded at Heathrow airport on Monday lunchtime, according to provisional data from the Met Office, beating the previous May record that was set in 1922 and reached again in 1944. Later in the afternoon a temperature of 34.8C was recorded at London’s Kew Gardens.

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Decision not to jail three UK boys for rape is ‘unusual’ and could be reviewed, says ex-attorney general

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Dominic Grieve says people are ‘perfectly entitled’ to ask Richard Hermer for review of teenagers’ sentences

Appeal judges would be unlikely to criticise the attorney general, Richard Hermer, if he asked them to review “unusual” non-custodial sentences handed to three teenage boys convicted of raping two girls, one of his predecessors has suggested.

Dominic Grieve, who also served as home secretary, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the goal of rehabilitating offenders – particularly younger ones – needed to be balanced with providing deterrence.

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Opposition divided: battle among Iranian regime’s opponents plays out on London streets

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Supporters of Reza Pahlavi, exiled son of the late shah, are clashing with those who oppose a return of monarchy

Wearing a bucket hat, a blue Adidas hoodie and khaki shorts, Tony Mohraz, also known as 021kid, chest-bumps a friend in front of a memorial wall in Golders Green, in north London.

Photographs can be seen behind him of those who were killed protesting against the Iranian regime. As a large lion and sun flag used in Iran before the Islamic revolution is waved overhead, Mohraz starts to rap.

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Labour to expand youth work experience and training schemes

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Announcement comes after former minister Alan Milburn says Britain has neglected a generation of young people

Ministers are expanding youth work experience and training schemes, after Alan Milburn warned Britain is spending £25 keeping young people on benefits for every £1 spent helping them into work.

Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, will announce plans for 300,000 extra work experience placements over the next three years as the government attempts to tackle what the minister described as a “quiet crisis” in youth employment.

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Riz Ahmed says UK spies tried to recruit him on three occasions

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Actor recounts three alleged approaches by intelligence services, including through senior BBC executive

Riz Ahmed, the Oscar-winning actor, has claimed that Britain’s intelligence services tried three times to recruit him, including one occasion involving a senior BBC executive.

Ahmed, 43, said: “Well, it’s happened three different times and they’re all slightly ridiculous, and this is what I mean by it, it’s just like inherently comedic.

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Bridget Phillipson orders review of hidden childcare charges hitting parents

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Education secretary asks UK watchdog to look into nursery practices, including non-refundable deposits and add-ons

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, is ordering a competition review of hidden childcare charges amid concerns parents are being hit with extra charges, despite the government’s flagship expansion of funded childcare hours.

Phillipson has written to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) asking it to examine practices including non-refundable deposits, compulsory add-ons and restrictions attached to government-funded childcare places.

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