Category Archives: UK news

UK schools boost maternity pay to stem exodus of female teachers in their 30s

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Sector faces ‘catastrophic loss’ as more than 9,000 thirtysomething women leave state education in a year

Schools across England are ramping up maternity pay and offering flexible working in a bid to stem the exodus of thousands of women in their 30s from teaching.

In Wednesday’s budget, Rachel Reeves confirmed she would fund the recruiting of 6,500 new teachers by pressing ahead with imposing VAT on private school fees. Yet heads and charities are warning that with more than 9,000 women aged between 30 and 39 having left state education last year, the government will not fix the teacher shortage unless it also acts to stop experienced women leaving.

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‘You have to disguise your human form’: how sea eagles are being returned to Severn estuary after 150 years

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Use of bird hand-puppets to rear young among innovative methods unveiled as part of project to restore species

Sea eagles were last seen soaring over the shimmering mud flats and brackish tidal waters of the Severn estuary more than 150 years ago. Now wildlife charities have unveiled innovative plans to bring the raptor back to the estuary, which flows into the Bristol Channel between south-west England and south Wales, by 2026.

“Sea eagles used to be common in these regions. But they were wiped out through human persecution,” says Sophie-lee Williams, the founder of Eagle Reintroduction Wales, which is leading the project. “We strongly believe we have a moral duty to restore this lost native species to these landscapes.”

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Scottish comedian Janey Godley dies aged 63

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Godley, whose comedy drew upon her Glasgow upbringing, died ‘surrounded by her loved ones’, her management says

Janey Godley, the Scottish comedian and author whose quick wit led her to swap pint-pulling in Glasgow for international standup tours, has died aged 63.

She died in a hospice “surrounded by her loved ones”, her management said on Saturday. Godley had announced she was receiving palliative care in September after her terminal cancer spread.

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Boy, 15, who fatally stabbed teenager he did not know in Birmingham is jailed for life

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Muhammad Hassam Ali, 17, was killed by stranger after a four-minute conversation in city centre

A 15-year-old boy who followed a teenager he did not know through Birmingham city centre and stabbed him to death after a four-minute conversation has been jailed for life with a minimum of 13 years.

Muhammad Hassam Ali, known as Ali, was 17 when he died in hospital on 20 January, hours after he and his friend were confronted by two masked 15-year-old boys they had never met as they sat in Victoria Square, drinking hot chocolate and chatting about cricket.

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Man jailed for claiming he had fought for Wagner group in Ukraine

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Piotr Kucharski wore insignia for proscribed terror group on combat clothing at Suffolk Viking re-enactment

A builder has been jailed for claiming at a Viking re-enactment that he had fought for the Wagner group in Ukraine.

Piotr Kucharski, 49, wore combat clothing bearing badges with insignia for the proscribed terror organisation to an event in Stonham Aspal, in Suffolk.

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Wandsworth escape accused says it was ‘foolish’ to jail him with his ‘skill set’

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Daniel Khalife, 23, says he absconded because he was ‘terrified’ of being locked up with dangerous offenders

A former British soldier has told a jury he did not hand himself in after he escaped from prison because he was “finally demonstrating what a foolish idea it was” to imprison someone with his “skill set”.

Daniel Khalife, 23, told the court he absconded from Wandsworth prison while on remand because he was “terrified” of being locked up with “serious sex offenders” and “terrorists” who wanted to kill him, and that he did not think his imprisonment would be in the public interest.

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Crown court backlog in England and Wales ‘could hit 100,000 without radical overhaul’

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Chief inspector raises prospect of judge-only trials and greater use of magistrates to reduce prosecutors’ caseloads

The backlog of cases in crown courts in England and Wales could hit 100,000 unless radical action is taken to overhaul the criminal justice system, a watchdog has said.

Anthony Rogers, the chief inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Serious Fraud Office (SFO), said prosecutors’ caseloads were already beyond what had been seen before and he feared the situation could deteriorate.

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Services for most-vulnerable people at risk after NICs rise, charities say

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Care providers, GPs and pharmacists warn increased costs will cause cuts and job losses

Services that support some of England’s most vulnerable people have warned that tax increases in the budget will lead to cuts and closures that could devastate the charity sector.

Although the NHS and councils are protected from the impact of the rise in employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) announced in Wednesday’s budget, charities that provide services say the increase means they will face “existential” financial pressures.

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More than meatballs: Ikea opens its first UK standalone restaurant in London

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Diners hail ‘great price’ of dishes at Swedish furniture chain’s food outlet next door to its Hammersmith store

Its meatballs are as famous as its flatpack furniture, with a meal in one of its restaurants often the highlight of an Ikea trip.

Now shoppers can enjoy an Ikea meal without lugging around their kitchen sink – literally – as the furniture company has opened its first standalone restaurant on the UK high street in King Street in Hammersmith. Located next door to its west London city store, the space seats 75 people and serves a range of Swedish dishes.

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UK supermarkets using multibuy deals to encourage sales of meat, study finds

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Exclusive: about one in five offers involve meat and dairy and one in ten processed meat despite known health risks

Supermarkets are using multibuy promotional deals to encourage shoppers to buy meat and processed meat, despite the products being linked to a heightened risk of cancer, research reveals.

Almost one in five (18%) of multibuy offers in major British supermarkets involve meat and dairy products, and one in ten (11%) processed meat such as ham, bacon and sausages.

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Imported Christmas trees cost more thanks to post-Brexit checks

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Nearly all are deemed ‘high-risk’ and so will need customs declarations and phytosanitary certificates

Every year, hundreds of thousands of Christmas trees make the journey into the UK to take pride of place in living rooms across the country.

But the the cross-border operation faces a new hurdle this year. Plants coming from the EU will be subject to post-Brexit border checks that importers are warning will increase costs for sellers, and probably push up prices for consumers.

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Head of government’s new value for money office ‘to be paid £950 a day’

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David Goldstone to advise chancellor and chief secretary to the Treasury on ways to cut public spending

David Goldstone, the government’s new value for money chair, will receive a daily salary rate of £950, it has been reported.

The position was announced by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, as part of Wednesday’s budget statement. She said Goldstone, who will be in post for a year, would “help us realise the benefits from every pound of public spending”.

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Reeves told she will have to raise further £9bn to avoid UK public service cuts

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Warning from comes after Rachel Reeves’s record tax-raising budget sent tremors through financial markets

Rachel Reeves has been warned an extra £9bn of tax rises may be required to avoid a fresh austerity drive in key public services as her record tax-raising budget sent tremors through the financial markets.

Threatening to undermine the chancellor’s claim that her budget would restore economic stability to Britain, government borrowing costs rose sharply in the City on Thursday as traders turned on Reeves’s tax and spending measures.

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Sara Sharif’s father ‘hit her like crazy’ and made her do sit-ups all night, court hears

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Stepmother’s WhatsApp messages read out at Old Bailey in trial over death of 10-year-old in Surrey last year

The father of Sara Sharif forced his daughter to do sit-ups all night because she hid his keys, a court has heard.

Urfan Sharif was also said to have made the schoolgirl put her hands in the air after beating her so badly her stepmother, Beinash Batool, feared he would break her arms and legs.

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Rachel Reeves’s most irritating manifesto fudge: private equity’s tax loophole | Nils Pratley

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Labour said it would bring taxation of performance-related pay in the industry in line with others – but the chancellor had a change of heart

It has been almost two decades since Nicholas Ferguson, a grand figure in the private equity business, caused a storm by talking out loud about his industry’s dirty little secret. It could not be right, he said, that highly remunerated private equity executives could pay less tax than a cleaner or other low-paid workers.

Things have moved on a bit since 2007. So-called “carried interest”, or carry – the portion of an investment profit that the private equity managers retain as a bonus for success – is now taxed at 28% under the capital gains regime; in the old days, rates in effect as low as 10% could be secured thanks to various exceptions.

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Private schools to take legal action against planned VAT on fees

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Independent Schools Council says its focus is on children and it is concerned about impact on specialist schools

The Independent Schools Council (ISC) has said it will launch legal action against the government’s decision to impose VAT on independent school fees.

The council, which represents more than 1,400 private schools in the UK and abroad, reached its decision after a board meeting held on Thursday.

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EU citizen who applied for pre-settled status is to be deported from Scotland

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Greek Cypriot Costa Koushiappis to be removed from UK even though his application is pending with Home Office

An EU citizen caught up in a Home Office backlog of applications for post-Brexit residency status is to be deported by Border Force officials in Scotland.

Costa Koushiappis, 39, who is Greek Cypriot, has been told to show up at Edinburgh airport at 7am on Friday to be forcibly put on a flight to Amsterdam just weeks after he received an email from the Home Office to say it could take a further 24 months to process his application for status.

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Housing, social care and universities: who lost out in the UK budget?

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Rachel Reeves made funding the NHS a priority but people working in other areas said they were disappointed

Rachel Reeves’s first budget emphasised raising taxes to help the NHS, as the health service tries to cope with huge waiting lists and an ageing population. Funding the NHS was a top priority but people in other sectors – from universities to social care – feel the budget was a missed opportunity to tackle impending crises or introduce desperately needed reforms in their areas.

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Ofcom fines GB News £100,000 for breach of impartiality rules over Sunak interview

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GB News to challenge decision and watchdog will not enforce sanction until proceedings are concluded

Ofcom has fined the rightwing broadcaster GB News £100,000 for “breaking due impartiality rules” after an interview with the former prime minister Rishi Sunak earlier this year.

The media regulator said it chose to impose a fine over the programme titled People’s Forum: The Prime Minister because it considered the breach serious, and because of GB News’s track record of breaking impartiality rules.

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Reeves’s long-term spending figures almost as unrealistic as Tories’ were, IFS says – UK politics live

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Institute for Fiscal Studies says budget ‘looks like the same silly games’ as seen under the Conservatives

Rachel Reeves is now being interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

She is being interviewed by Ed Balls, the former Labour shadow chancellor who is now a TV presenter. He asks her to confirm that workers will end up losing out because of the employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) increase.

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