Category Archives: UK news

Brummies celebrate inaugural International Day of Birmingham

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Comedian Joe Lycett declares United States of Birmingham with 10 US towns and cities that share the name

Residents of Birmingham often admit the city is not accustomed to blowing its own trumpet – still maligned and mocked by others, it tends to favour self-deprecating humour.

So the launch of the inaugural International Day of Birmingham (IDOB), celebrated with cheerleaders, confetti cannon and actual trumpets, is not what you would expect to see on a walk through the city centre on a Tuesday afternoon.

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Starmer needs the public’s trust to be able to make the hard choices to come

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Labour needs voters to believe politics can make their lives better not that politicians are all the same, hence why the donations row was so damaging

When Keir Starmer wanted to inject a moment of levity into his first speech as prime minister at the Labour conference, he told a story about visiting a holiday cottage in the Lake District where the owner joked about wanting to push him down the stairs.

As lighter moments go, it had a dark edge. It is British humour, of course, but there is a reason it made an impression on Starmer – it’s a microcosm of what he and his closest advisers see as their greatest threat: the cynicism and disdain with which ordinary people view politicians. The view that they are all the same, all on the take. The widespread lack of trust that politics can make lives better.

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Parents of babies attacked by Letby ‘kept in the dark’, inquiry told

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One mother told Thirlwall inquiry she was unaware for six years anything had happened

Parents of babies attacked by Lucy Letby were not told their children had suffered life-threatening collapses until they were contacted by the police years later, an inquiry has heard.

The parents of one newborn boy said it was “disgusting” they were “kept in the dark” by staff at the Countess of Chester hospital after their son’s health suffered a serious deterioration in June 2016.

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Winter fuel: thousands more could lose benefit if it becomes means tested, data suggests

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A further 175,000 pensioners are likely to stop receiving allowance under such plans, official figures show

A further 175,000 pensioners could lose the winter fuel allowance if the benefit becomes means tested, data suggests.

About 11.6 million people in the UK received the benefit last winter, an increase of 214,000 on the previous year, according to figures released on Tuesday by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The overwhelming majority are to have this removed this winter under plans announced by the Labour government to cut spending on the benefit.

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Labour’s benefit fraud crackdown would allow officials to access bank accounts

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Proposals will require financial institutions to share data that may help identify scammers

Labour has promised to crack down on benefit fraud by reintroducing “snooper’s charter” proposals mooted under the last government that would allow welfare officials to request information from claimants’ bank accounts.

A fraud, error and debt bill will require banks and other financial institutions to share data that may help identify benefit fraud as part of a package of measures designed to “catch fraudsters faster” and save £1.6bn over five years.

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Firm disclosed phone data of shot Tanzanian politician, UK tribunal hears

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Tigo’s former investigator claims he was unfairly dismissed for raising concerns over 2017 attack on Tundu Lissu

Gunmen tried to assassinate a Tanzanian opposition politician after a telecoms company secretly passed his mobile phone data to the government, according to evidence heard in a London tribunal.

The mobile phone company Tigo provided 24/7 phone call and location data belonging to Tundu Lissu to Tanzanian authorities in the weeks before the attempt on his life in September 2017.

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Germany and France call for Europe-wide deal with UK on migration

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Letter sent to EU said Brexit had gravely affected ‘the coherence of policies’ on asylum and migration

Germany and France have called for a Europe-wide deal on migration and asylum with the UK government, to capitalise on Labour’s more “constructive” approach to EU-UK relations.

In a letter to the EU home affairs commissioner, the German interior minister, Nancy Faeser, and her former French counterpart, Gérald Darmanin, said Brexit had gravely affected “the coherence of migration policies”.

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US-UK airstrikes have not seriously hurt Houthis’ capability, says Yemeni leader

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Yemen government vice-chair fears strikes intended to end shipping chaos are instead helping Houthis rally support

US-UK airstrikes in Yemen designed to end the Houthi disruption of commercial shipping have not seriously degraded the group’s military capability, the vice-chair of the UN-recognised government in Yemen has said.

Aidarous al-Zubaidi told the Guardian in an interview he feared the Houthis were using the strikes to rally support behind their cause by portraying the west as the aggressor in Yemen.

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EU plant exporters turning backs on UK over ‘painful’ border checks, says trade group

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Trading relationships at ‘breaking point’ because of delays and costs, garden centres and nurseries warn

Exporters of plants and flowers from mainland Europe are turning their backs on supplying Britain as “painful” new Brexit border checks are putting some trading relationships at “breaking point”, garden centres and nurseries have warned.

The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), which represents garden retailers and growers, said long-held links between British nurseries and EU suppliers were now being put under strain because of the delays and costs associated with the new border processes.

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UK weather: commuters face travel disruption after heavy rainfall

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Thirty-five flood warnings in place across England after some areas get more than 100mm of rain in 48 hours

Commuters in parts of England are still facing travel issues despite a respite from heavy rain.

Parts of Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire have had more than 100mm of rain in the past 48 hours, with Woburn in Bedfordshire recording 132mm, more than twice its September average rainfall, according to the Met Office.

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Hospital where baby died from infected feed had ‘entirely unsafe system’

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Admission by doctor at Guy’s and St Thomas’ made during inquest into deaths of three babies infected

An NHS trust that gave four newborn babies contaminated feed has admitted that it was operating “an entirely unsafe system” at the time they became infected.

The admission came during evidence by a senior doctor at Guy’s and St Thomas’ trust (GSTT), who led its investigation into the outbreak, during an inquest into how one of the very premature babies died.

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Lisa Nandy: Tories’ ‘violent indifference’ to the arts damaged access to culture

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Exclusive: culture secretary says predecessors ‘vandalised’ the arts and pledges state funding for every community

The Conservatives’ “violent indifference” to the arts has resulted in communities across the country getting poor access to culture, Lisa Nandy has said ahead of a planned funding review.

The culture secretary accused her Tory predecessors of “vandalism” as she pledged to get state funding to every community and make sure that private philanthropy reached beyond the major cities.

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Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus may have been co-written by forgotten dramatist

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Exclusive: Scholar names Henry Porter as likely co-author of 1604 play after linguistic clues in his surviving work

Scholars have long suggested that Christopher Marlowe had a collaborator for the comic scenes of his classic play Doctor Faustus, although his name alone is on the 1604 published edition. Now a largely forgotten dramatist, Henry Porter, has emerged as the likely co-author, based on comparative linguistic evidence that has been unearthed from his surviving play.

Doctor Faustus is a tragic story of vanity and greed, in which a scholar sells his soul to the devil in return for knowledge and power. The tragedy is mirrored by scenes of comic horseplay that are now thought to have been written by Porter, who was described by a contemporary as “the best for comedy amongst us”.

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Nearly half of prisoners at HMP Brixton tell watchdog it is easy to obtain drugs

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Report finds prison is failing to prepare inmates for release and hundreds of prisoners have substance abuse problems

HMP Brixton, the most overcrowded prison in the country for moderate-risk inmates, is failing to prepare prisoners for release, with nearly half saying it is easy to buy drugs, a watchdog has found.

Inspectors found that many of the 740 men held there had turned to drugs because they had nothing constructive to do. Two-thirds of the men were sharing cells designed for one person.

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Family call on UK to ensure British activist goes free from Egyptian jail

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Alaa Abd el-Fattah is due to complete five-year sentence over social media post but family fear further charges

The family of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, a British activist and author imprisoned in Egypt, are calling on the UK government as well as the Egyptian authorities to ensure he walks free at the end of this month after five years in detention.

“Let’s remember that this is an innocent man who has committed no crime, but even so he will have served his time on 29 September,” said Abd el-Fattah’s sister, Sanaa Seif.

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Dorset ‘Stonehenge’ discovered under Thomas Hardy’s home

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Enclosure older than Salisbury monument found under late novelist’s garden is given heritage protection

When the author Thomas Hardy was writing Tess of the D’Urbervilles in 1891, he chose to set the novel’s dramatic conclusion at Stonehenge, where Tess sleeps on one of the stones the night before she is arrested for murder.

What the author did not know, as he wrote in the study of his home, Max Gate in Dorchester, was that he was sitting right in the heart of a large henge-like enclosure that was even older than the famous monument on Salisbury Plain.

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Necklace worn at Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation could fetch £2m at auction

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Some jewellery historians believe it features diamonds from infamous piece at centre of Marie Antoinette scandal

An antique diamond necklace worn at Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation and may be linked to a French scandal involving Marie Antoinette could fetch as much as £2m at auction.

The necklace, made of 300 carats, was also worn to King George VI’s coronation by members of the Marquess of Anglesey family, who owned the diamonds until the 1960s when they sold them.

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Cutting winter fuel payments ‘right decision’, says Reeves, as No 10 says no change to council tax discount for single people – Labour conference live

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Chancellor says £22bn gap in current spending budget and state pension rise meant she had to make decision on means-testing fuel payments

In interview this morning Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, defended her own decision to accept clothing donations worth £7,500 when she was in opposition.

Speaking on the Today programme, she said:

I can understand why people find it a little bit odd that politicians get support for things like buying clothes.

Now, when I was an opposition MP, when I was shadow chancellor of the exchequer, a friend of mine who I’ve known for years [Juliet Rosenfeld] – she’s a good personal friend – wanted to support me as shadow chancellor and the way she wanted to support me was to finance my office to be able to buy clothes for the campaign trail and for big events and speeches that I made as shadow chancellor.

It’s never something that I planned to do as a government minister, but it did help me in opposition.

It’s rightly the case that we don’t ask taxpayers to fund the bulk of the campaigning work and the research work that politicians do, but that does require, then, donations – from small donations, from party members and supporters, from larger contributions, from people who have been very successful in life and want to give something back.

We appreciate that support. It’s part of the reason why we are in government today, because we were able to do that research work, and we were able to do that campaigning.

Unite and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) have put forward motions which were due to be debated on Monday afternoon, with strong support expected from other unions.

Sources said unions were told late on Sunday that the debate is being moved to Wednesday morning.

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Harrods investigating if any current staff were involved in Fayed’s alleged abuse

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Exclusive: store issues new statement as lawyers describe redress scheme it has set up as attempted ‘whitewash’

Harrods is investigating whether any of its current staff were “directly or indirectly involved” in the alleged sexual abuse of women by its former owner Mohamed Al Fayed.

With more than 100 women having come forward to allege being raped or assaulted by the Egyptian tycoon, the luxury store said it had launched a review and was in direct contact with Scotland Yard.

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Reeves packs up her troubles until budget day and smiles, smiles, smiles | John Crace

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The chancellor beamed her way through a conference speech that offered hope at least but little of substance

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone. If you had thought that maybe today was the day when you made that call to Dignitas, then think again. Cancel that flight to Zurich. At least postpone it. Things might not be quite as bad as you had been led to believe. Or rather, they are that bad but there is some small flicker of hope if you can hold on long enough. There will be pain in the short and medium term. There’s no avoiding that. Try to think of it as character building. But possibly, just possibly, you might come through. We happy few. Blinking into the light of the promised land.

This was Rachel Reeves’s day. And she knew everything was going to be just fine the moment she woke up to find that Liz Truss had posted yet another cry for help on X. You can now follow the Trusster’s decline in real time on social media. It’s got so bad that she now films herself in front of a bookcase where everything is arranged by colour. The kindest explanation is that she thinks she’s filming a hostage video and the books are a coded message for “I’m being held against my will”.

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