Steven Wilson was attacked after risk assessment failed to stop convicted murderer working in kitchen with access to knives
A career burglar has been awarded more than £5m in damages by a high court judge due to “life-changing” injuries he sustained after being stabbed in prison.
Steven Wilson, 36, sued the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) after a convicted murderer stabbed him multiple times with a 9-in knife in July 2018 while working in the canteen at HMP Chelmsford.
Continue reading...Lisa Nandy says Labour government will stop accepting gifted clothes as they don’t want voters to believe they are ‘living very different lives’
The prime minister and Labour ministers will stop accepting clothing donations because they don’t want voters to believe they are “living very different lives” to people who are “really struggling” in the country, the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, has said.
Speaking before the opening of the Labour conference tomorrow, Nandy told the BBC the government wants to demonstrate that its priorities are “the country’s priorities”, after it emerged Keir Starmer, his wife Victoria, Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner have all decided to stop accepting free gifts of clothes from Labour party donors.
Continue reading...Woman says store’s former owner told her he was her ‘boyfriend’ and kissed her on the forehead
A former Harrods worker has criticised Harrods for the way it handled the alleged misconduct of the store’s former owner Mohamed Al Fayed.
Five women have alleged they were raped by Fayed, who died last year at the age of 94, and a number of others have alleged sexual misconduct.
Continue reading...Gloomy segmented head of famed playwright fails to convey his wit and brilliance, says Merlin Holland
A huge sculpture of Oscar Wilde’s head lying on its side, his face sliced into segments, has been condemned as “absolutely hideous” by the playwright’s grandson.
Merlin Holland, an expert on Wilde’s life and works, has criticised a 2ft-high black bronze sculpture by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi that is to be unveiled in a public garden in Chelsea, south-west London, near Wilde’s former home.
Continue reading...Anxiety is the most common reason why parents choose to take pupils out of school
Steve Bladon has been a headteacher for a decade. Yet when he found himself temporarily home educating his 11-year-old daughter, who had such severe anxiety that she couldn’t leave the house, he admits he felt “absolutely lost”.
“Initially we had no idea what to do,” he said. “All we knew was that she needed time and space, so we weren’t compounding her anxiety.”
Continue reading...Performer was first black actor to land leading role at National Theatre and to be cast in regular role on UK soap opera
The “trailblazing” actor Cleo Sylvestre has died aged 79, her agent has confirmed.
Sylvestre, also known as Cleopatra Palmer, had been a feature of film, stage, television and music since the 1960s, and played Melanie Harper, Meg Richardson’s adopted daughter, in ITV’s Crossroads – making her the first black actor to have a regular leading role in a UK soap opera. She was also the first black actor to land a leading role at the National Theatre.
Continue reading...Jamar Powell says PC Connor Jones should be sacked rather than receiving written warning over traumatising action
A Metropolitan police officer who put a Taser to the neck of an innocent black child after he had been forced to kneel in the street has been found guilty of gross misconduct but allowed to keep his job.
Jamar Powell told the Guardian he had feared he might die during the incident in September 2020, was left traumatised and would struggle to ever trust the police again, having been stopped and searched more than 30 times with nothing ever being found.
Continue reading...Protesters in Liverpool to call on government to implement full arms embargo against Israel over Gaza war
The UK’s first pro-Palestine national march to be staged outside London is expected by organisers to attract tens of thousands of people on the periphery of the Labour party conference in Liverpool.
The 19th “national march for Palestine” will start at midday on Saturday near Lime Street railway station and end near King’s Dock, where Keir Starmer’s party is gathering this weekend.
Continue reading...Ipsos survey asked people in 31 countries what they thought of their health and healthcare
Mental health has overtaken cancer and obesity as the health problem most Britons worry about, a global survey has revealed.
Experts said the shift in the public’s perception reflected the sharp rise in recent years in mental ill-health caused by the Covid pandemic, the cost of living crisis and male violence against women.
Continue reading...Lee Anderson, Richard Tice and Nigel Farage give speeches at Reform party conference. This live blog is closed
Richard Partington is the Guardian’s economics correspondent
UK national debt has hit 100% of the country’s annual economic output, the highest level since the 1960s, underscoring the challenge facing the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, as she prepares for next month’s budget.
As leader, you’ve got a huge job, because you’re campaigning everywhere. You’re sorting out the professionalisation with the chairman and so we’re sharing and sharing alike and that’s an important part of it. You can’t be everywhere all the time. It’s really difficult. But let me tell you, no one works harder than Nigel Farage.
As a leader of a party that is now becoming mainstream, international affairs, our relationship with our most important, strategic international partner – the US – is very important and the world will be a safer place if Donald Trump wins the presidential election. Nigel’s strong relationship with Donald Trump is actually to the benefit of this country and it’s quite right that he cements and strengthens that.
No one’s got more visibility, frankly, than Nigel on social media. I’m getting millions of views on mine. The other three MPs, likewise. We’re out there. We’re making a noise. Frankly, we are the real opposition. The Tories have vacated the premises, we hardly ever see them in the House of Commons.
I’ve spoken 16 times, I’ve challenged the zealot-in-chief, Ed Miliband. I’ve challenged the home secretary. I’ve challenged the health secretary on the failings of the NHS. So look, we’re holding them to account. That’s what people expect of opposition parties.
Continue reading...Party will modernise, says leader at Birmingham conference dominated by populist discourse
Nigel Farage has predicted he can win the next general election at a packed Reform UK conference that announced a new structure for the party but also leaned heavily into hard-right tropes and occasional conspiracy theories.
“We can win the next general election just with the numbers of people that agree with our principles,” Farage told cheering supporters in Birmingham.
Continue reading...Offline Club’s first global event on Sunday will begin with tips on how to be phone-free for 24 hours every week
Haunted by a pile of unread books? Or taunted by climbing equipment lurking in the cupboard? If you are one of the UK adults who spends on average five hours a day looking at screens rather than participating in pastimes, perhaps it’s time to join the offline revolution.
Instead of spending those five hours staring at a screen, you could read about 300 pages of a book, climb Mount Snowdon, or – depending on your pace – run a marathon. Some are even choosing to turn off their devices for the day.
Continue reading...Officials warn repeat of Tory rejection could dent new government’s hopes of pacts on defence and agriculture
Fresh proposals to allow young people to move between the UK and the EU will be presented to the British government within weeks, in what is seen as a key early test of Labour’s “reset” in relations with Brussels.
Informed sources say the first draft of a new version of Ursula von der Leyen’s April proposal has already been discussed by member states and will be put to a working group in Brussels next week.
Continue reading...Vladimir Kara-Murza tells Keir Starmer that further exchanges are a matter of ‘life and death’
Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian dissident freed in the biggest prisoner swap since the cold war, has appealed to Keir Starmer during a meeting in Downing Street to not let hundreds of political prisoners in Russia and Belarus quietly “die off”.
Kara-Murza, who was released last month two years into a 25-year sentence after speaking out against the war in Ukraine, said he had told the prime minister on Friday that organising further such swaps was a matter of “life and death”.
Continue reading...Officials trying to avoid repeat of Afghan chaos as Israel strikes and foreign secretary tells UK nationals to leave
David Lammy chaired a Cobra meeting to discuss preparations to evacuate remaining Britons from Lebanon, having already urged UK nationals to leave the country amid hostilities with Israel.
The foreign secretary led meetings in Whitehall on Friday as officials try to avoid a repeat of the chaos in which British people scrambled to leave Afghanistan when the Taliban took over in 2021.
Continue reading...A run of scoops from a writer who came ‘out of nowhere’ has led to intensified questions about the paper’s ownership
Elon Perry gave the impression he was a mover and a shaker.
There are the photos of him alongside Michael Gove – and taking selfies in Downing Street. And there are interviews too.
Continue reading...Many remain positive about their high-profile politician but others complain that he ‘got his seat and disappeared’
It happened sometime on Monday morning, locals think, though no one seems to know exactly when. But as staff in the shops on Old Road in Clacton stepped out of work for lunch, they spotted that the billboard on the corner of Crossfield Road had been ripped to ribbons.
Plenty had approved of the poster, placed there by the political campaign group Led By Donkeys, drawing attention to the huge scale of the local MP Nigel Farage’s earnings outside politics. A photo of the billboard posted on X by the group has 24,000 likes.
Continue reading...Party’s aim is to build base of local councillors and activists, deputy leader says before conference
Reform UK plans to mimic the Liberal Democrats in building up a national base of councillors and activists to try to expand its support, the party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, has said before its annual conference.
While the mood in Birmingham will be celebratory, with Tice joining Nigel Farage as two of the five Reform MPs elected on 4 July, there could also be some internal dissent over a planned new party constitution, with one senior party figure saying it would allow Farage to act as an “absolute dictator”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: government is hoping to avert a potentially damaging row at Labour conference
Trade union leaders will meet senior ministers on Saturday for crunch talks on the government’s workers’ rights package, as the government looks to head off a potentially damaging row at Labour conference.
General secretaries from the 11 unions affiliated to Labour will meet Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, and Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, on the eve of conference to thrash out details of the package, sources have told the Guardian.
Continue reading...Scotland secretary says Labour must show it deserves power in Holyrood by delivering on promises to electorate
Labour faces big challenges to win the next Scottish election because of the “dire” economic situation and the country’s volatile electorate, the Scotland secretary has said.
Ian Murray said the Labour government and the wider party had to accept they had “a big hill to climb” to regain power in Holyrood in elections scheduled for May 2026.
Continue reading...