Category Archives: UK news

Starmer’s growth plan ‘doomed’ without access to EU markets, warn economists

Posted on by

Labour leader told if elected he will have to rejoin the customs union to meet party’s manifesto pledges, while 56% of voters say Brexit was bad for economy

A Labour government under Keir Starmer will fail to maximise the UK’s economic growth unless it takes the country back into the European Union’s single market and customs union, leading economists and diplomats have said.

The warnings come as an Opinium poll for the Observer finds that 56% of voters now believe Brexit has been bad for the UK economy as a whole, compared with just 12% who believe it has been economically beneficial.

Continue reading...

Farage doubles down on claim west provoked Ukraine invasion

Posted on by

Reform UK leader refuses to apologise after his remarks attracted widespread condemnation

Nigel Farage has doubled down on his claims that the west provoked the Russian invasion of Ukraine, refusing to apologise and insisting he is not an “apologist or supporter of Putin”.

The Reform UK leader had appeared on the BBC’s Panorama programme on Thursday night, drawing a link between Nato and EU expansion in recent decades and the conflict in eastern Europe.

Continue reading...

Mother of teenager missing in Tenerife says police have ‘stepped up’ search

Posted on by

Debbie Duncan, mother of Jay Slater, says it is right that search should be intensified for 19-year-old

The mother of Jay Slater, the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer who is missing from Tenerife, has said she believes that Spanish police have intensified their search for him, as the hunt enters its sixth day.

Debbie Duncan told the Guardian she spent eight hours in a police station on Friday, as police outlined their detailed plans to search for the missing teenager from Lancashire. “I think it’s been stepped up,” she said, which she described as “too right”.

Continue reading...

Restaurateur Jeremy King continues comeback with opening of the Park

Posted on by

After losing his empire in 2022, the lauded host is opening a ‘new world grand cafe’ in London’s Bayswater

This month, Jeremy King will open the Park, an all-day restaurant in Bayswater. It is the second of three big 2024 openings for the lauded restaurateur, who was behind the heydays of some of London’s most celebrated restaurants such as Le Caprice, the Ivy and the Wolseley.

It follows the launch of Arlington in January, King’s modern reboot of Le Caprice, once a favourite with the stars from Diana, Princess of Wales to Mick Jagger. Later in the year he’ll be reviving another stalwart, Simpson’s on the Strand.

Continue reading...

Election loss, rout, or wipeout? Three Tory outcomes predicted by the polls

Posted on by

Scenarios using a large-scale data model that predicts individual seat tallies indicate anything from 53-155 Tory MPs

So-called MRP polls, which use large-scale polling data to extrapolate individual seat tallies, have become something of an obsession in UK politics since an early version by YouGov predicted 2017’s hung parliament, while other surveys were tipping an easy Conservative win.

So popular are MRPs, an acronym for a very technical approach known as multilevel regression and post-stratification, that three were published on a single day this week. All gave pretty different results, particularly when it came to the fate of the Tories.

Continue reading...

‘At breaking point’: anger brewing in Lancashire village over booze tourism

Posted on by

Whalley residents say drunken crowds and antisocial behaviour at weekends is making life unbearable

Whalley, in Lancashire’s verdant Ribble Valley, is famed for its 14th-century Cistercian abbey and historic churches, as well as the spectacular views from Whalley Nab, the wooded hill that overlooks this seeming picture-postcard idyll.

But while the village still draws in family day-trippers and history buffs, it is also attracting an altogether different type of tourist, after earning perhaps an unlikely reputation as Lancashire’s premier drinking destination.

Continue reading...

Women urged to accept NHS cervical screening invitations

Posted on by

NHS England says its ambition to wipe disease out by 2040 relies on more under-50s coming forward

Women have been urged by NHS officials to attend cervical screenings after figures showed a third of those under 50 do not take up their invitation.

Each year, about 3,200 women in the UK are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 850 die from it. It is the 14th most common cancer affecting women in Britain, with women aged 30 to 34 most likely to be diagnosed with it.

Continue reading...

Some takeaway meals contain more calories than daily limit, UK study finds

Posted on by

Cafes, fast-food outlets, restaurants, bakeries, pubs and supermarkets accused of fuelling the obesity crisis

Some takeaway meals contain more calories in one sitting than someone is advised to consume in an entire day, a study of British eating habits has revealed.

Cafes, fast-food outlets, restaurants, bakeries, pubs and supermarkets are fuelling the UK’s obesity crisis because so many meals they sell contain dangerously large numbers of calories, it found.

Supermarket meal deals – usually comprising a sandwich, snack and drink – contain on average 780 calories, more than the 600 advised.

Burgers are the most popular takeaway dish in England, Scotland and Wales, followed by chips, fries or wedges.

People consume an average of 300 calories a day in takeaway food and drink.

Non-alcoholic drinks, especially coffee and fizzy soft drinks, contribute 12% of all the calories consumed by people in out-of-home premises.

Continue reading...

Next government faces hard choices on English universities, say experts

Posted on by

Ministers left with unpalatable options of raising tuition fees, making grants or capping student numbers, says IFS

The next government faces “unpalatable” choices between raising tuition fees, making direct grants or capping student numbers to rescue universities in England from their financial black hole, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned.

The thinktank said universities that relied on teaching UK students for the bulk of their income were most vulnerable, calculating that undergraduate tuition fees would now be £12,000 if they had kept pace with inflation, rather than the £9,250 rate frozen since 2016.

Continue reading...

Guardia Civil reject offer of help from Lancashire police in search for Jay Slater

Posted on by

Spanish police say they have the resources it needs for hunt for 19-year-old who was last heard from on Monday

Spanish police have rejected an offer of support from Lancashire constabulary as the hunt for the missing British teenager Jay Slater in Tenerife continues.

Lancashire police said it had made “an offer of support to the Guardia Civil to see if they need any additional resources” in their efforts. The 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle was last heard from between 8am and 9am on Monday morning when he contacted a friend.

Continue reading...

Nigel Farage interviewed by Nick Robinson on Panorama election special – live

Posted on by

Reform leader speaks on BBC as part of special election interviews; Welsh TV election debate to take place on BBC One Cymru

If you want to get a bit of revision in before Nigel Farage’s interview tonight, you can find the Reform UK manifesto, which it is branding its “contract with you”, here.

The five opening key pledges are:

All non-essential immigration frozen to boost wages, protect public services, end the housing crisis and cut crime.

Illegal migrants who come to the UK will be detained and deported. And if needed, migrants in small boats will be picked up and taken back to France.

Still free at the point of delivery, healthcare needs reform to improve outcomes and enjoy zero NHS waiting lists.

Lift the income tax starting threshold to £20k to save the lowest paid £1,500 per year. This takes 7 million of the least well-off out of income tax to make work pay and get people off benefits.

Scrap energy levies and net zero to slash energy bills and save each household £500 per year. Unlock Britain’s vast oil and gas reserves to beat the cost of living crisis and unleash real economic growth.

Continue reading...

Starmer says he would not let SNP hold new independence referendum or lift veto on gender recognition bill – as it happened

Posted on by

Labour leader says he would refuse to participate in negotiations for another independence referendum if he is elected PM

Speaking of Nigel Farage: the Reform UK leader has praised the misogynist influencer Andrew Tate for being an “important voice” for the emasculated and giving boys “perhaps a bit of confidence at school” in online interviews that appear to be aimed at young men over the past year.

The Guardian’s Rowena Mason and Ben Quinn report:

Continue reading...

Labour candidates penalised for not campaigning enough in battleground seats

Posted on by

Those standing in easy or unwinnable constituencies lose access to key party software if deemed not to be canvassing hard enough in twinned target areas

Dozens of Labour candidates have been blocked from accessing the party’s canvassing systems, which help them drum up support from voters, if they are deemed not to be campaigning enough in target seats.

In some cases, candidates who have been campaigning every day in battleground seats they are twinned with – as instructed to by Labour HQ – in parts of the home counties and Essex, have still lost their access to key software as their seats are considered either very safe or simply not winnable.

Continue reading...

Rishi Sunak refuses to say if more Tories face election bet inquiries

Posted on by

PM says he is ‘angry’ about allegations while Keir Starmer accuses him of ‘total lack of leadership’

Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives are refusing to say how many Tories are under investigation for betting on the date of the election, as the row continues to dog their campaign.

The prime minister said on Friday he was “angry at the thought that someone might have done the things that are alleged” after three people linked to the Conservatives were made subject to Gambling Commission inquiries, including one from his inner circle.

Continue reading...

UK consumers seek £382m from salmon producers in price-fixing case

Posted on by

Law firm’s case against six Norwegian-owned fish companies is over alleged breaches of competition law

A legal firm is seeking £382m on behalf of British consumers from some of the world’s largest salmon producers, which are accused of price fixing.

Legal action filed this week at the Competition Appeal Tribunal said UK consumers overpaid for at least four years because of alleged breaches of competition law by the fish firms Mowi and its subsidiary Mowi Holdings, SalMar, Lerøy, Scottish Sea Farms and Grieg.

Continue reading...

Former post office operators’ leader denies ‘betraying’ his membership

Posted on by

George Thomson tells inquiry he was ‘too trusting’ of Post Office bosses about faulty Horizon IT system

The former leader of an association representing post office operators has told a public inquiry that he was “too trusting” of information given by the Post Office about its faulty Horizon IT system, but he denied being “too close” to the state-owned body and “betraying” his own membership.

George Thomson, a former general secretary of the National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP), an association that represents post office operatives, was testifying to a public inquiry that is examining why hundreds of operatives were prosecuted after the Post Office blamed them for financial shortfalls. It has since emerged that the Post Office’s Horizon IT system was not reliable and contained bugs, errors and defects.

Continue reading...

Rishi Sunak says he is ‘incredibly angry’ about betting allegations in BBC Question Time election special – as it happened

Posted on by

Prime minister says suspects must face ‘full force of law’ if found guilty; Labour, SNP and Lib Dem leaders speak during programme

The next question comes from Linda, who says Davey’s antics during the election campaigns (fun photo opportunities, often involving him getting wet) haven’t looked prime-ministerial.

Davey says he has been trying to grab attention.

It was very difficult governing with the Conservatives. We couldn’t get everything we wanted …

You either had to stay in and fight inside the government or leave. I think the easy choice for me would be to leave, vote against it, and tour the media studios and complain. The hard choice was to stay in, roll up my sleeves and really fight.

Continue reading...

Pregnant women should be tested for diabetes far earlier, study suggests

Posted on by

Women should be tested for gestational diabetes before 14 weeks, say academics

Pregnant women should be tested for diabetes much earlier than the current practice of doing so between 24 and 28 weeks, according to research.

Gestational diabetes, a form of the condition that only develops in pregnancy, affects thousands of women in the UK and one in seven pregnancies worldwide. It is the most common medical pregnancy complication and occurs when a hormone made by the placenta stops the body from using insulin effectively, leading to elevated blood glucose levels.

Continue reading...

Former Tory minister vows to vote Labour over party’s climate failures

Posted on by

Exclusive: Chris Skidmore, ex-energy minister, says Rishi Sunak’s bid to turn net zero into culture war issue is ‘greatest tragedy of his premiership’

The Conservatives’ former net zero tsar has revealed that he intends to vote Labour for the first time because Rishi Sunak has been “siding with climate deniers” to politicise the energy transition.

Writing exclusively in the Guardian, Chris Skidmore, a former energy minister, said he could not back the Tories, who had argued that net zero was “a burden and not a benefit”, a decision that he said would cost it votes.

Continue reading...

Whatever the sums involved, the election betting scandal will linger in public’s minds

Posted on by

The suggestion that Tories and their associates used insider knowledge to enrich themselves is unlikely to help Sunak narrow the gap in the polls

When Rishi Sunak, Britain’s Conservative prime minister, called a snap election in the pouring rain last month, he would have hoped his party would have closed at least some of the 20-point deficit in the opinion polls.

Instead, it seems the only members of his party who have profited since are some of his Downing street aides – in a political betting scandal that has swiftly reinforced prevailing anti-Conservative stereotypes in the British public’s imagination.

Continue reading...