Category Archives: UK news

Calls for regulation of gambling ads in football as number of promotions soars

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Premier League fans exposed to almost 30,000 messages in one weekend despite restrictions, research finds

Ministers have been urged to intervene to stop football clubs from setting their own rules on curbing gambling advertising, after research showed Premier League fans were bombarded with nearly 30,000 gambling messages on a single weekend.

Clubs in the top flight have so far avoided compulsory restrictions on gambling sponsorship, instead addressing public concern through voluntary measures such as a ban on front-of-shirt logos, starting in 2026.

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‘Trees of hope’: Sycamore Gap tree saplings to be planted around UK

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Project asks people to make ‘promises to nature’ after ‘rollercoaster’ year for the Northumberland landmark

Its illegal felling brought feelings of grief, distress and anger but after a “rollercoaster” 12 months custodians of the Sycamore Gap tree say they want its legacy to become one of hope.

The National Trust and Northumberland national park have announced an initiative inviting the public to request one of 49 saplings from the tree.

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‘Head of deckchairs on the Titanic’: Tory leadership hopefuls head to low-key conference

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Demoralised and in opposition, party delegates are showing little enthusiasm for the candidates – or the event itself

On Tuesday, from a conference stage in Birmingham, four candidates will make their pitches to lead the Conservative party. Their immediate challenge after the Tory rout this summer will be to reinvigorate a hugely demoralised set of MPs and members.

Starting on Sunday, the annual gathering of the Tory faithful – the first in 14 years to be held from opposition – is expected to be a low-key affair. The evening schedule, ordinarily packed with corporate receptions, is sparse.

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Netanyahu says Israel ‘will not stop’ attacks on Hezbollah despite ceasefire calls

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Israeli airstrikes killed 92 people in Lebanon on Thursday; John Kirby says White House had believed Israel was ‘on board’ with ceasefire proposal

Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel “will not stop” its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon despite calls from the US, France and other allies for an immediate three-week ceasefire aimed at containing the spread of a conflict that is beginning to engulf Lebanon.

The calls for an immediate ceasefire were backed on Thursday night by Lebanon’s minister for foreign affairs, Abdallah Bouhabib, who told the UN general assembly his country was enduring a crisis that “threatens its very existence”.

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Keir Starmer meets with Donald Trump in push for good relationship

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The PM and foreign secretary David Lammy met with the Republican candidate, but were not able to schedule a meeting with Kamala Harris

Keir Starmer has met Donald Trump for a two-hour dinner in New York, as he sought to establish a good relationship with the Republican presidential candidate.

The prime minister was accompanied by his foreign secretary David Lammy, who described Trump as a neo-Nazi sympathiser in 2018 but has since said he would work with him in office.

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‘Pretty farcical’: Keir Starmer downplays use of Waheed Alli’s £18m penthouse

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PM says the public can make their own judgments about gifts and maintains no rules have been broken

Keir Starmer has said the row over him borrowing Labour donor Waheed Alli’s luxury flat for filming was “farcical” and that the public would come to their own judgments about his reasons for taking support from the peer.

The prime minister sought to downplay the row over the flat when he was asked about his gifts from the Labour peer while on a trip to New York, after weeks of questions about receiving clothing, spectacles and temporary use of a £18m penthouse from Alli.

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Southern Water considers shipping supplies from Norwegian fjords to UK

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Contingency plan using sea tankers to deal with future shortages would be paid for from customers’ bills

Southern Water, one of Britain’s biggest water companies, is drawing up contingency plans to tanker water from Norway to deal with future supply shortages and drought.

Southern, which has 2.7 million customers for drinking water supply in the south-east of England, could import water from Norwegian fjords to provide up to 45m litres a day, and would pay for it from customers’ bills.

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Badenoch says she’s a ‘huge fan’ of Elon Musk, as other Tory leader candidates decline to praise him – UK politics live

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The billionaire owner of X has reportedly not been invited to Labour’s international investment summit next month

Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a thinktank specialising in race and identity issues, says that it is “courageous” for Kemi Badenoch to endorse Elon Musk as enthusiastically as she has done. (See 9.55am.) As he explains, he is using “courageous” in the Yes Minister sense, as a synonym for rash or unwise.

But Katwala is citing polling about the views of Conservative party voters. It is hard to know what Conservative party members think, because they are harder to poll, and so less polling is available, and they are the group that will ultimately elect the next Tory leader. If their views align with the views of Reform UK voters, then her stance on Musk might help her.

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Brontë sisters finally get their dots as names corrected at Westminster Abbey

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Amended memorial to the writers unveiled at Poets’ Corner 85 years after misspelled plaque first installed

An 85-year injustice has been rectified at Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey with the corrected spelling of one of the greatest of all literary names. Reader, it is finally Brontë, not Bronte.

An amended memorial to Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë was unveiled on Thursday with added diaereses (two dots) that ensure people pronounce it with two syllables. As if it rhymed with Monty, not font.

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Harrods chief apologises for failing colleagues over Fayed allegations

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Michael Ward says former Harrods owner ‘presided over a toxic culture’, describing it as ‘shameful period’

The managing director of Harrods has apologised and said the business “failed our colleagues” following sexual misconduct allegations against the department store’s former owner, Mohamed Al Fayed.

In a statement, Michael Ward said it is clear Fayed “presided over a toxic culture of secrecy, intimidation, fear of repercussion and sexual misconduct”.

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Morrisons agrees £331m property deal on extra long leases to cut debt pile

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Transaction will reportedly provide investment firm Song Capital with ground rent on 76 supermarkets for 45 years

Morrisons has raised £331m to cut its debt pile through the sale of ground leases on 76 supermarkets as part of a turnaround plan under the new chief executive, Rami Baitiéh.

If all the proceeds are used to pay down debt, Morrisons would have net debt of £3.6bn, down from as much as £8.6bn at the end of last year.

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‘Thrown like a rag doll’: British tourist narrowly survives hippo attack in Zambia

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Roland Cherry, from Warwickshire, sustained severe bite wounds after being mauled by animal during safari

A man narrowly survived after being dragged to the bottom of a river and “thrown through the air like a rag doll” when he was attacked by hippo while canoeing on holiday in Zambia.

Roland Cherry, who was on five-week holiday through southern Africa with his wife, Shirley, sustained severe bite wounds across his body, including a 10in wound to his abdomen, as well as a thigh injury and dislocated shoulder in the attack.

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‘Chucky goes north’: Rochdale reacts to arrival of ‘creepy’ giant baby

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Lilly, an 8.5-metre tall puppet designed to help children talk about the environment, provokes mixed response

They say it is rude to comment on a baby’s appearance but that has not stopped the residents of Rochdale, who awoke on Wednesday to a “freaky” new arrival.

Lilly, an 8.5-metre tall puppet designed to help children talk about the environment, went on display in the town centre to a somewhat bewildered response.

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Thames Water credit ratings slashed to lower levels of junk as default fears grow

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S&P and Moody’s cut ratings by five notches on risk troubled company will run out of cash

Thames Water’s debt rating has been slashed to the lower levels of junk by two major credit rating agencies, piling further pressure on the UK’s biggest water company, which is rapidly running through cash and fighting to stave off renationalisation.

S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s said the utility was fast running out of money and on the brink of default. S&P cut its rating on Thames’s £15bn top-ranking debt pile by five notches to CCC+, taking it into the triple-C category that is considered very risky. Thames lost its investment-grade credit rating in July.

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Pharmacy closures in England threaten plan to use them instead of GPs for some care

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Closure of hundreds of outlets hitting rural areas, older people and deprived communities hardest, according to Healthwatch England

High street pharmacies are closing at such an alarming rate that it threatens the drive to use them instead of GPs to care for millions of people, the NHS’s patient champion warns today.

A total of 436 community pharmacies in England shut permanently last year and there were also 13,863 temporary closures, which stopped patients from obtaining health advice and medication.

Cheshire and Merseyside ICB saw the most permanent closures last year – 51

The North East and North Cumbria ICB had the highest number of temporary closures – 1,438

The same area also saw the highest number of hours lost to temporary closures – 4,054

And pharmacies in the Norfolk and Waveney ICB area shut temporarily for the longest number of hours on average – 17.48

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Jaguar Land Rover to invest £500m in Halewood car plant

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Upgrade to Merseyside site will allow it to build hybrid cars and prepare for electric vehicle production

Jaguar Land Rover has said it will spend half a billion pounds to upgrade a Merseyside factory to build hybrid cars and prepare for electric vehicle production.

Britain’s largest automotive employer – officially known as JLR – said it has already spent £250m on new car production lines, machinery, people and digital technology at the Halewood plant, with plans for £250m more over the coming years.

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Labour to announce £10bn AI project in Northumberland backed by pro-Trump billionaire

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Stephen Schwarzman’s Blackstone Group will fund data centre bringing 4,000 jobs to north-east England

Keir Starmer is set to announce the creation of a £10bn AI datacentre, bringing 4,000 jobs to north-east England, which will be funded by a private equity firm run by a big Donald Trump supporter.

The prime minister is due to host chief executives in New York on Thursday, where he is trying to drum up interest in foreign investment into the UK. He will hail the investment in an “artificial intelligence datacentre” – due to be built in Blyth in Northumberland by Blackstone – as a “vote of confidence in the UK”.

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Comedian Janey Godley receiving end-of-life care for cancer

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Scottish standup posts video saying she is getting palliative care and will be going into a hospice

The comedian Janey Godley has revealed she is receiving end-of-life care after her terminal cancer spread.

The 63-year-old announced she would be getting palliative care and going into a hospice in a video shared on social media on Wednesday.

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Labour crackdown on non-doms may raise no money, officials fear

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Exclusive: Watchdog may conclude that emigration of wealthy individuals could actually cost Treasury revenue

Keir Starmer’s promised tax crackdown on non-doms could yield no extra funds for the Treasury, leaving a £1bn hole in the government’s planned spending for schools and hospitals.

Labour planned to use the money raised from wealthy individuals who are registered overseas for tax purposes to invest in ailing public services.

But the Guardian understands that Treasury officials fear estimates due to be released by the government’s spending watchdog may suggest the policy will fail to raise any money because of the impact of the super-rich non-domiciles leaving the UK.

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Keir Starmer under pressure to ‘get a grip’ on Sue Gray tensions

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Exclusive: Some ministers have rallied around chief of staff while others accuse her of ‘control freakery’

Keir Starmer has become exasperated about in-fighting across government involving Sue Gray, with the prime minister under pressure from senior aides and cabinet ministers to resolve the row.

Sources said the situation would come to a head after he returned from his trip to the UN in New York, where he was joined by his chief of staff. Starmer is said to be dismayed at tensions inside the No 10 machine.

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