Ex-nurse to go on trial after Manchester crown court unable to reach verdict last year on attempted murder of baby
A jury has been told to disregard Lucy Letby’s convictions for murdering babies when they decide whether she is guilty of trying to kill another infant.
Letby, 34, is due to go on trial on Wednesday accused of attempting to murder the child, known as Baby K, in February 2016.
Continue reading...Reform UK leader on top deck of party battlebus when objects reportedly thrown from nearby construction site
A 28-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of a public order offence after Nigel Farage had objects hurled at him while campaigning in Barnsley.
The Reform UK leader was waving to local people from the top of the party’s battlebus in South Yorkshire on Tuesday morning when two separate objects were thrown at him.
Continue reading...Alex Chisholm, who led business office during Hinkley Point C negotiations, appointed UK chair of energy firm
One of the UK’s most senior civil servants, Alex Chisholm, has been revealed as the new UK chair of the energy company EDF, after having previously run the department that struck a deal for it to build a new nuclear power station.
Chisholm was permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, and before that led the business department, which worked on the government deal for EDF to go ahead with the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant in Somerset. The agreement was struck in 2016 with UK bill payers bearing the cost of the construction over a 35-year period.
Continue reading...GMB poll receives reports of workers being stabbed, punched and threatened with syringes
One in three Asda staff have been attacked at work, according to research that included reports of workers being stabbed, punched and threatened with syringes.
The poll of almost 1,000 members of GMB, one of the UK’s biggest unions, returned stories of delivery drivers being chased by people in cars, while store workers had food thrown at them. More than half (58%) of respondents said they had suffered injury or illness on the job.
Continue reading...Degrees often derided as ‘low-value’ or ‘Mickey Mouse’ subjects are praised as vital to UK’s £108bn creative industries
Media and communications studies, often derided as “soft”, “low-value” or “Mickey Mouse” subjects, are in fact popular, dynamic and have “profound impact”, according to a report.
The British Academy study says that rather than being “low value”, such courses play a vital role in the UK’s £108bn creative industries and have become increasingly relevant in a world grappling with new technologies, artificial intelligence and the dangers of disinformation.
Continue reading...Party’s proposals involve about £140m to refurbish school classrooms, but nothing extra to increase staffing
Labour has been accused of leaving a gap in its childcare plans after the party confirmed its promise to offer 100,000 new childcare places would not involve extra funding to recruit more staff.
Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, appeared at a primary school in Nuneaton on Monday alongside the shadow education secretary to publicise the party’s pledge to expand childcare places through primary schools.
Continue reading...Party figures including Braverman and Jenrick waiting to see how public responds to pledges, insiders say
Conservative rightwingers are planning to present Rishi Sunak with demands for tougher action on immigration and human rights law before the election if the prime minister’s manifesto promises on Tuesday fall flat.
Prominent party figures including Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick are said by Tory insiders to be among those waiting to see how the manifesto is received by the public before they act.
Continue reading...Taxes, D-day, Farage and NHS waiting lists were all on the agenda as the prime minister jousted with Nick Robinson
Rishi Sunak was the first party leader to sit down with the BBC’s Nick Robinson for the broadcaster’s series of long-form election interviews. Here are the key points from the PM’s grilling.
Continue reading...Fears of negative press outweighed by sadness and disbelief after TV presenter’s body was found five days after he went missing
“Thank God we found him.” Seated in his black leather office chair, surrounded by icons, oil paintings, photographs, medals and models ships, Lefteris Papakalodoukas, Symi’s longtime mayor, is clearly relieved.
It’s 9am and almost 24 hours have elapsed since the body of the TV presenter Michael Mosley was found lying in a gulley of rocks and thistle only metres from the sea, beneath the perimeter fence of a beach bar.
Continue reading...Party presents ‘fully costed plan to tackle the healthcare crisis from top to bottom’, including guarantees on GPs and dentists and free-to-access social care
The Liberal Democrats have become the first of the big parties to launch their election manifesto, with a pitch to voters based on boosting the NHS and social care.
They also promised that – unlike Labour and the Tories – their plans were fully costed.
Continue reading...PM acknowledges in BBC Panorama interview to air tonight that it is a challenge for people to buy their first home
Davey sums up the Lib Dems’ plans on health and social care
And he says he wants to mention one other policy he is particularly proud of – the proposal to give proper bereavement support to parents whose partners have died.
Continue reading...Antonio Soprano says he was told to walk to a McDonald’s for food as there was none at Sevington
An Italian lorry driver has described the UK’s new post-Brexit controls as a “mess” after his lorry was held at a government-run border post for more than two days.
Antonio Soprano, 62, who was stopped while bringing plants into the country from central Italy, said he was offered nothing to eat during his 55-hour ordeal and instead was told by border officials that he should walk to a McDonald’s more than a mile away to get a meal.
Continue reading...Met Office reports tentative signs of building high pressure but forecasts sunny spells and showers for this week
There are tentative signs of high pressure building from the west but cool, wet weather is likely to continue across the UK, forecasters say.
After a cool and windy weekend, Monday and Tuesday will remain cool for the time of year, the Met Office said, although will feel warmer in sheltered sunshine.
Continue reading...Family angered by Anne Sacoolas’s refusal to give evidence in person over motorcyclist’s death in 2019
Harry Dunn’s mother has said she is “unspeakably hurt” that her son’s killer, Anne Sacoolas, has refused to attend the inquest into his death, saying it was “bitterly disappointing and, as a mother, utterly incomprehensible”.
An inquest into Dunn’s death opened on Monday, almost five years after the 19-year-old was killed when his motorcycle collided head-on with a vehicle driven by Sacoolas that was on the wrong side of the road outside a US military based in Northamptonshire in August 2019.
Continue reading...New policy follows sacking of ex-CEO Bernard Looney with top managers given three months to report all relationships in past three years
BP employees will have to disclose intimate relationships with colleagues or risk losing their jobs, according to a new policy brought out after the dismissal of former boss Bernard Looney for failing to tell the board.
Employees must disclose “familial and intimate relationships at work” without exception, the FTSE 100 oil company said on Monday. That is a tougher stance than before, when they only had to disclose relationships if they thought there was a a conflict of interest risk.
Continue reading...Surprise announcement comes amid internal party pressure and fresh allegations over expenses claims
Douglas Ross has announced he will stand down as leader of the Scottish Conservatives on 4 July amid growing internal pressure over his multiple roles in the party and fresh allegations about improper expenses claims.
In the surprise statement on Monday morning, Ross also said he would quit as an MSP at Holyrood should he win the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East constituency at the Westminster election.
Continue reading...Award-winning star, who is bringing the concert A Life in Notes to London’s Coliseum, says lyricists’ words are not reaching audiences clearly, due to a lack of training and overbearing sound mixes
Over a 50-year career she has sung lines written by musical theatre’s biggest names but the Tony award-winning star Patti LuPone fears that lyricists are being failed by today’s productions. “I cannot understand a lyric,” she said, referring to Broadway’s current wave of musicals.
LuPone blamed the problem on sound mixing that drowns out singing voices and actors who have not learned the art of projection because forehead microphones are now so widely used. “Young performers have no idea how to project,” she said, adding that they should ask themselves “who are you doing this for?” when on stage and remember “they are singing for the back row”.
Continue reading...Campaigners say lower speeds reduce casualties but scheme has since been amended to give people more choice to rescind limits
Vehicle damage claims in Wales have fallen by 20% at one leading car insurer since the nationwide 20mph speed limit was introduced there last September.
Wales was one of the first countries in the world, and the first nation in the UK, to introduce legislation for a default 20mph speed limit in built-up areas last year.
Continue reading...Leader talks of ‘fully costed, fully funded’ plans for NHS, nursery places, social care and university funding
In the sunny garden of a local community centre in Thurrock, a relaxed-looking Keir Starmer, shirt sleeves rolled up, was surrounded by a buzz of television cameras, reporters and Labour party activists taking selfies.
Hundreds of miles away in North Yorkshire, Rishi Sunak, who had cancelled a press event on Saturday amid the fallout from his D-day blunder, spent a quiet day in his constituency, nursing his wounds.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Party plans to set up more than 3,300 nurseries in existing primary schools in England for children from nine months old
Labour has pledged to create more than 100,000 new nursery places for children from nine months old, helping to both drive up standards and meet demand, as a key manifesto offer for working parents.
The party plans to set up more than 3,300 new nurseries in existing primary schools in England to support a major expansion of childcare.
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