Jas Athwal, the Ilford South MP, ‘shocked’ by allegations and ‘profoundly sorry’ for condition of his properties
A newly elected Labour MP has been accused of renting out flats with black mould and ant infestations.
Jas Athwal, the MP for Ilford South, owns 15 rental flats, according to a report by the BBC.
Continue reading...Official tickets are priced at between £73 and £151, but some resellers are charging in the thousands for them
Oasis have issued a warning to people against reselling tickets for their reunion tour – or buying those resold tickets – on the secondary market at vastly inflated prices.
The band said tickets “sold in breach of the terms and conditions will be cancelled by the promoters”.
Continue reading...A new report lays down a challenge to Keir Starmer to take on vested interests of food, drink and tobacco companies
Illness, disease and death can be the result of bad luck, genetic factors or people’s lifestyles – whether someone smokes, drinks a lot or consumes a lot of junk food, for example.
The role of lifestyle in explaining why the UK is an increasingly sick country, and the growing pressures on the NHS, is often underappreciated. Experts tend to cite the growing and, especially, ageing population, which are both key factors.
Continue reading...Health groups challenge Starmer to ban ‘unhealthy products’ firms from lobbying MPs by giving them gifts
MPs are being urged to stop accepting freebies to sports and cultural events from tobacco, alcohol and junk food firms because their products cause so much illness and death.
More than 100 health groups are urging Britain’s lawmakers to reject offers of gifts and hospitality from “unhealthy products industries” because they use an array of underhand tactics to disguise the harm they create in order to protect their sales.
Continue reading...Health minister at Stormont was sole candidate to replace Doug Beattie when nominations closed
The former television news presenter Mike Nesbitt is to become the leader of the Ulster Unionist party for the second time, succeeding Doug Beattie who quit last week.
Nesbitt, 67, who led the UUP between 2012 and 2017, was the only declared candidate when nominations closed on Friday evening. He is expected to be formally ratified as leader at an extraordinary general meeting of the party on 14 September.
Continue reading...Announcement follows questions over exceptional appointments of Labour donor and former thinktank staffer
The civil service appointments watchdog has launched a review of exceptional appointments to official jobs after a row about alleged cronyism, following a Labour donor and a former thinktank staffer being given roles.
Gisela Stuart, the first civil service commissioner, has written to the heads of all government departments asking for details of any appointments since 1 July that were made without going through the normal civil service recruitment processes.
Continue reading...Jacqui Smith says Labour hopes to ‘make it much more likely’ that smokers will want to give up
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has said the UK is “deeply worried” by the “methods Israel has employed” in an IDF military operation in the occupied West Bank.
In a statement on Friday morning, an FCDO spokesperson said:
The UK is deeply concerned by the ongoing IDF military operation in the occupied West Bank.
We recognise Israel’s need to defend itself against security threats, but we are deeply worried by the methods Israel has employed and by reports of civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.
We inherited a Tory housing crisis.
Too few homes have been built.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Debt-ridden company also warned officials of ‘chilling effect’ of any renationalisation
Thames Water has lobbied the government to intervene with the regulator to allow it to charge far higher bills, the Guardian can reveal.
Advisers and board members of the beleaguered water company are understood to have met Whitehall officials in recent weeks to say that allowing it to be temporarily renationalised would have a “chilling effect” on the entire UK’s appeal to international investors, sources familiar with the discussions told the Guardian.
Continue reading...Badenoch and Jenrick are the bookies’ favourites but the party’s reduced ranks make the numbers extremely tight
When the Conservative MPs who remain return to Westminster, they will briefly seem like some of the most popular people in SW1. With the party so reduced in numbers, over the next few days there will be a furious wooing of those who have not yet declared for one of the six leadership candidates.
“The race is wide open,” one senior Tory said. “There are barely any public endorsements so no one can tell who is the favourite. The public polling has been all over the place. Often they seem to be just based on who has paid for it.”
Continue reading...Painting that hung in former PM’s study since 2009 no longer there – but aides are tightlipped as to whereabouts
In a summer punctuated by an election and then riots there has not really been a “silly season”, the traditional news-light period when holidaying MPs become worked up about trivialities. That is until now – thanks to a row about a portrait of Margaret Thatcher.
What is known is that the slightly austere painting of the former prime minister by the artist Richard Stone has been moved from the Downing Street study where it had hung since 2009, when Gordon Brown commissioned it.
Continue reading...House prices grew at annual rate of 2.4% in August, the fastest since December 2022, Nationwide figures show
The UK housing market is at its strongest since the aftermath of Liz Truss’s infamous mini-budget that sent borrowing costs soaring, according to the latest figures.
Nationwide said house prices grew at an annual rate of 2.4% in August, up from 2.1% in July and the fastest rate since December 2022.
Continue reading...Tory MPs will vote next week in a series of ballots to narrow the field down to four candidates
Conservative MPs will start whittling down the leadership candidates to four next week, the first stage in a long contest from which a winner will not emerge until 2 November. Here are the six candidates in the running to replace Rishi Sunak.
Continue reading...Reduction of about a fifth of workforce in two subdivisions part of plan to slash up to $3bn in costs by end of 2025
Shell is to cut hundreds of jobs from its oil and gas exploration operation in the latest move by the chief executive, Wael Sawan, to slash up to $3bn (£2.3bn) in costs by the end of next year.
The energy company is to cut about a fifth of its workforce in two subdivisions of its oil and gas business responsible for exploration strategy and developing its oil and gas finds.
Continue reading...Mendis, who stayed in Manchester church for two years in 1980s to fight deportation, has died aged 68 in Germany
Refugees and human rights activists are making their way to Bremen in north-west Germany for the funeral of a man who fought for freedom and safety for asylum seekers.
Viraj Mendis came to prominence after seeking sanctuary in a Manchester church where he spent two years in the 1980s. He died aged 68 on 16 August in Bremen, which offered him sanctuary after he was deported from the UK.
Continue reading...Planned 22 days of disrupted weekend services suspended with Aslef stating it has resolved a longstanding dispute
A series of weekend strikes by train drivers on LNER from Saturday has been called off, their trade union Aslef has announced.
Passengers travelling between London and Edinburgh had faced the prospect of months of disruption after LNER drivers earlier this month announced 22 days of industrial action from the start of September until early November.
Continue reading...Samaritans charity calls on government to invest in suicide prevention as it has with smoking reduction
Ministers have been urged to treat suicide as a public health crisis after the rate at which people killed themselves in England and Wales reached the highest level in more than two decades.
The official figures, described by the suicide prevention charity Samaritans as “worse than expected”, showed 6,069 suicides were registered in the two nations in 2023, up from 5,642 in 2022 and the highest rate since 1999.
Continue reading...Mussie Imnetu from Sweden, who worked under Gordon Ramsay, was assaulted while in London on business trip
A Swedish chef who had worked under Gordon Ramsay is in critical condition after being attacked near Notting Hill carnival on Monday.
Mussie Imnetu, 41, the head chef at the Arts Club in Dubai, was visiting London on a business trip. At about 11.20pm on Monday, Imnetu was attacked at the Dr Power restaurant in Queensway.
Continue reading...Robert O’Brien says UK could face US counter-embargos and put its role in F-35 fighter jet project in danger
Labour risks a serious rift in the UK’s special relationship with the US if it goes ahead with a ban on arms sales to Israel, Donald Trump’s last national security adviser has warned.
Robert O’Brien, still one of the key security voices in the Trump circle, said the UK was endangering its future role in the F-35 project as well as facing the risk of US congressional counter-embargos. The F-35 fighter jets are made in part by British arms firms and are used by Israel’s air force as part of its bombing of Gaza.
Continue reading...Hospitality industry expresses concern about impact on businesses of leaked proposals not denied by PM
Keir Starmer is on a collision course with the hospitality industry and political opponents after signalling plans for major curbs on outdoor smoking.
The proposals, not denied by the prime minister, would potentially prohibit tobacco use outside pubs and restaurants, including on pavements. The restrictions would come on top of existing plans to gradually outlaw smoking year by year.
Continue reading...Jade Anthony Barnett, who was attacked in Clapton, used a mobility scooter after losing a leg in a motorcycle accident
Tributes have been paid to a “jolly, cheerful, caring” man who was stabbed to death in east London.
Officers were called at 3.38pm on Wednesday to reports of a fight in Rushmore Road, Clapton, where they found Jade Anthony Barnett, 38, with stab wound injuries.
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