Category Archives: UK news

Reform deputy leader Richard Tice splitting time between Skegness and Dubai after partner leaves UK

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MP says he is totally committed to his constituency after Isabel Oakeshott moved to the Emirates

One weekend, it will be the straightforward delights of Skegness seafront; the next, the flashy private beach clubs of Dubai.

Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK and its MP for Boston and Skegness, is splitting his time not just between his Lincolnshire ­constituency and the House of Commons, but is also spending time 3,500 miles away in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). “We are spreading our international reach,” he said.

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UK’s TV workers exposed to ‘illegal or barely legal’ conditions and traumatic content

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Report cites low pay and overwork, and employees complain of receiving no warning before working on disturbing scenes

“Illegal or barely legal” working practices are rife in the UK’s TV industry, new research has revealed.

Workers in post-production roles, including editors, designers and special effects artists, are regularly being paid below the minimum wage and experiencing “unacceptable” conditions, such as hours spent in dark, unventilated rooms and exposure to traumatic content with no warning.

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Phil Hammond, a key figure in the fight for justice over Hillsborough, dies

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Hillsborough Family Support Group pays tribute to man whose 14-year-old son Philip was killed in the disaster

A key figure in the fight for justice after the Hillsborough disaster has died, the campaign group has announced.

Phil Hammond, whose teenage son was killed in the tragedy, was remembered as a “very kind, fair, honest and humble man” by members of the Hillsborough Family Support Group (HFSG) which Hammond chaired, battling for truth and justice over how his son and 96 others died.

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Three more people charged with murder after shooting in north-west London

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Michelle Sadio, 44, died after shots were fired towards mourners outside church in Harlesden

Three more people have been charged with murder after a woman was killed in a drive-by shooting outside a north-west London church.

Michelle Sadio, 44, died after shots were fired in Harlesden at about 9pm on 14 December. She was standing with mourners outside the River of Life pentecostal church after a wake.

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Labour pledges to make Sunday trains as reliable as weekday services

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Government plans to renationalise railways will establish new public body to improve the network

Sunday train services will be as reliable as those on weekdays under plans to renationalise the railways, the new transport secretary will claim in a keynote speech on Monday.

Issuing a series of pledges on which the government will be judged by millions of passengers – as well as its political opponents – Heidi Alexander will cite the creation of a network “where Sunday services are as ­reliable as Monday’s” as one of her key priorities.

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‘Discovered’ diaries of British socialite Unity Mitford reveal Hitler relationship

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Diaries, believed to be genuine, chronicle 139 pre-war meetings between antisemitic aristocrat and Nazi leader

The diaries of an antisemitic British socialite who was obsessed with Adolf Hitler and struck up a personal relationship with the Nazi leader have been discovered, according to the Daily Mail.

The leather-bound journals, which had been lost to historians and unseen for eight decades, appear to reveal the extent of Unity Mitford’s relationship with the dictator.

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Home Office accused of ‘blocking’ people stuck in war zones from joining family in UK

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FoI figures show Home Office apparently refusing to use biometrics waiver for people who have no way to submit them

The UK government’s family reunification policy has been criticised by charities and MPs after data revealed how Home Office bureaucracy was making it impossible for people stranded in war zones, such as Gaza and Sudan, to reunite with family members in the UK.

Existing policy is supposed to allow those in need of resettlement the opportunity to join relatives in the UK. In order to apply for family reunion visas, applicants must submit biometrics – usually a fingerprint and a photograph – at appointments at a visa application centre (VAC) in their country of residence.

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Scotland’s largest haggis maker creating new recipe to meet US rules

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Macsween working to circumvent food regulations that have banned traditional recipe in US for more than 50 years

Scotland’s largest haggis maker is creating a “compliant” recipe of the nation’s most famous dish to circumvent strict American food regulations after more than 50 years in exile.

The decision by Macsween of Edinburgh comes after traditional haggis was banned by the US authorities in 1971, taking issue with the sheep’s-lung component of the recipe, which was then prohibited for use as human food by federal regulation.

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Schools ‘need more help’ to tackle rising number of sexual assaults by pupils

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Charities say better guidance is needed over increasing number of sexual assaults in UK primary schools

Schools must be given clearer guidance on how to handle peer-on-peer sexual abuse among pupils, charities have demanded.

Rape Crisis and other charities wrote to England’s education secretary Bridget Phillipson and Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, last week, calling on the government to step in with clearer statutory guidance on how schools in England and Wales should address sexual violence when both the victim and the alleged perpetrator are pupils.

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British man admits stabbing partner to death in Italy

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Michael Whitbread, 75, is on trial in Lanciano for murder of fellow Briton Michele Faiers, 66, in October 2023

A British man living in Italy has admitted stabbing his partner to death, claiming he did it after she accused him of cheating on her.

Michael Whitbread, 75, told a court he could not remember how many times he stabbed fellow Briton Michele Faiers, 66, in October 2023.

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Starmer urges world leaders to ‘double down’ on support for Ukraine

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PM stressed shared ‘unbreakable commitment to Nato and Ukraine’ with Poland in meeting with Donald Tusk

Keir Starmer has urged world leaders to “double down” in their efforts to support Ukraine during a visit to Poland, days before Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency risks jeopardising international solidarity on the issue.

Speaking alongside the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, after the pair discussed a proposed defence-focused treaty, Starmer dodged questions on the possible impact of Trump, but insisted the only way forward was “peace on Ukraine’s terms”.

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Police fear ‘rightwing driven’ reaction to grooming gangs will harm victims

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Senior officers say fraction of child abuse cases relate to gangs and funding could be diverted from current cases

Senior police officers fear that government pressure to reinvestigate closed historic cases of gang grooming could make it harder to catch those targeting children today.

The government on Thursday announced more reviews of past cases and also that victims, whose cases did not end in prosecutions, will be given a new right of appeal to have their investigations reopened.

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‘One-in-a-billion’ round egg found at farm in Devon to be auctioned

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Rare spherical egg could fetch in region of £200, with proceeds of sale going to charity

A farm worker in Devon has discovered what she believes to be a “one-in-a-billion” spherical egg.

Alison Greene, who has worked as an egg handler on Fenton Farm near the Somerset border for three years and handled more than 42m eggs, said she had never found a perfectly round one before.

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FTSE 100 hits record as interest rate hopes push down UK borrowing costs

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Nearly every share on index rose after fall in value of pound helped multinationals listed in London

The UK’s blue-chip stock index has hit a record high, as hopes of interest rate cuts this year drove down government borrowing costs.

Almost every share on the FTSE 100 rose on Friday, the fall in the value of the pound bolstering multinationals listed in London and propelling the index above 8,500 points for the first time.

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Robots, drones and uncrewed vessels ‘likely to be default’ in future Royal Navy

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UK defence chiefs see no need to recruit extra sailors as maritime force will become hybrid with uncrewed systems

The Royal Navy of the future will be dominated by robots, drones and uncrewed vessels, leading chiefs to conclude there is no need to try to recruit extra sailors as part of the forthcoming defence review.

Adm Sir Ben Key, the first sea lord, believes the navy has to focus on recruitment and retention rather than seeking more personnel numbers because crew sizes are inevitably falling as military technology evolves.

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UK mortgage rules could be eased to increase growth

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FCA also aims to change law to try to prevent a repeat of mass compensation schemes for consumers such as PPI

Mortgage rules could be loosened by the City regulator as it comes under government pressure to increase economic growth and home ownership across the UK.

The move to “simplify responsible lending” for property purchases is part of a range of proposals put forward by the Financial Conduct Authority in an attempt to prove that the watchdog is not standing in the way of the Labour cabinet’s “growth mission”.

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Police in London urge public to use different pins for gym and bank cards

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Criminals stealing hundreds of pounds by snooping locker codes and using them to access accounts with same pin

Police have urged the public to use different pin codes at the gym after a prolific thief stole hundreds of pounds from a man he snooped on while entering a locker code that he also used for his bank card.

Last September Declan Murphy, 35, secretly watched the victim as he typed in a locker code at a luxury central London gym. After stealing the victim’s phone and bank card from the locker, Murphy then successfully guessed that the four-digit code on the card would be the same as the locker code.

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Trump v Bannon, Musk v Farage: who hates who in Magaland

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The feuds and rivalries within the US president-elect’s Maga ecosystem – including some British sympathisers

The task of deconstructing the internal manoeuvrings of the leadership of the Soviet Union was once regarded as little short of a science such was the paucity of information. Today, the court of Donald Trump is perhaps no less enigmatic – but for quite different reasons. Trumpologists trying to keep up with the machinations of the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement and its sympathisers in Britain are faced with a torrent of information via social media posts and podcast rants. Sworn enemies today can easily be the closest of conspirators tomorrow. Steve Bannon has let it be known that he intends to bring down fellow Trump acolyte Elon Musk in time for inauguration day (with days to go). It is no easy task to make sense of it all but here is what we know of the current feuds and rivalries in the Maga ecosystem:

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Jimmy Mizen’s killer recalled to prison after breaching licence conditions

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Jake Fahri served 14 years in jail for the murder of the London schoolboy

A rapper who served 14 years in jail for the murder of a London schoolboy has been recalled to prison for breaching his licence conditions after media reports exposing the lyrics to his music.

Jake Fahri, then 19, was given a life sentence in 2009 with a minimum term of 14 years for killing Jimmy Mizen by throwing an oven dish at him. The glass dish shattered and severed blood vessels in the 16-year-old’s neck in a south London bakery.

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Minister denies Labour ‘governing by social media’ after new grooming gangs review ordered – UK politics live

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Lisa Nandy defends Yvette Cooper’s decision to order urgent review following pressure driven by Elon Musk

A ban on UK employers using non-disclosure agreements to hush up cases of sexual misconduct and harassment is being considered as part of the government’s overhaul of employment rights.

After a slew of high-profile cases and years of campaigning by activists, it is understood that ministers are prepared to back a change in the law to prohibit the misuse of gagging clauses.

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