Category Archives: UK news

Ryanair passenger numbers pass 20m a month amid 5% fall in fares

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Shares rise despite a drop in carrier’s revenues, which Michael O’Leary says will last until spring 2025

Ryanair said it has reaped strong traffic growth after a summer when the airline’s fares were down 5% and passenger numbers passed 20 million a month.

Shares in Europe’s biggest carrier rose on Tuesday, after the group chief executive, Michael O’Leary, revised previous gloomier predictions of a double-digit drop in peak-season fare income, although he said the dent in revenues would probably last until spring 2025.

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Liz Truss considered cutting NHS cancer care to pay for tax cuts, claims new book

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Truss at 10: How Not to Be Prime Minister also claims former Tory leader feared smears over cocaine use among team

Liz Truss considered cutting cancer care on the NHS in a desperate bid to find savings to pay for the tax cuts in her botched “mini budget”, according to a new book about her time in office.

The book, Truss at 10: How Not to Be Prime Minister by the renowned political biographer Anthony Seldon, is a 330-page long, largely excoriating account of Truss’ 45 days in Downing Street.

At that point, they were joined by fellow special adviser Alex Boyd, who was told that Truss and Kwarteng were thinking they could still sort out the black hole with severe cuts.

“We’ve been told that they’re looking at stopping cancer treatment on the NHS,’ they told him.

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Removal of unsafe cladding from buildings ‘too slow’, says Angela Rayner

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Deputy PM visited Dagenham, east London, after fire tore through block of flats undergoing remedial works

Angela Rayner has called efforts to remove unsafe cladding from thousands of at-risk buildings “too slow” and said it was her job to ensure remaining works finished as quickly as possible.

The deputy prime minister made the comments during a visit to Dagenham, east London, on Tuesday afternoon, the day after a dramatic fire tore through a block of flats that was undergoing remedial works to remove “non-compliant” cladding.

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Two men charged with murder over Bradford house fire that killed four

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Mohammed Shabir and Calum Sunderland to appear in court after death of mother and three children

Two men have been charged with murder over a fatal house fire in Bradford in which a mother and her three children died.

Bryonie Gawith, 29, and her three children – Denisty Birtle, 9, Oscar Birtle, 5, and 22-month-old Aubree Birtle – died in the early hours of last Wednesday, after a fire at their home.

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Lucy Letby inquiry should be postponed or changed, experts say

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Group including neonatal experts and statistics professors question its setup amid concerns about conviction

A group including some of the UK’s leading neonatal experts and professors of statistics is calling on the government to postpone or change the terms of a public inquiry over concerns about the conviction of the neonatal nurse Lucy Letby.

In a private letter to ministers, seen by the Guardian, the 24 experts said they were concerned that the inquiry’s narrow terms could prevent lessons being learned about “possible negligent deaths that were presumed to be murders” in the neonatal ward of the Countess of Chester hospital (CoC).

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Keir Starmer takes a political gamble with message of bad news

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Past Labour PMs – Blair, Wilson, Attlee – have tended to arrive in power accentuating the positive

Sir Keir Starmer could perhaps have timed it better. On the day that Oasis, the band that symbolised the mood of sunny optimism that swept Tony Blair to power in 1997, announced their reunion, the prime minister’s message to the nation was that things would get worse before they got better.

Politically, it is quite a gamble. There haven’t been all that many Labour governments in the past 125 years, but they have tended to arrive in power accentuating the positive. That was true of Blair in 1997 and true of Harold Wilson in 1964.

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Calls to close ‘vile’ website ranking countries by tourist deaths on balconies

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Intervention over Spanish website from MSP Christina McKelvie comes days after death of Scottish law student

A Scottish politician has called for the closure of an “utterly vile” Spanish website that ranks countries by the number of their tourists who have died or been injured after falls from balconies.

The intervention by Christina McKelvie, the MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, comes days after the death of a Scottish law student who was born in a constituency represented by McKelvie.

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UK shop prices fall year on year for first time since cost of living crisis began

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Prices down 0.3% in first week of August as food inflation eases and retailers attempt to shift unsold summer stock

UK shop prices have dropped for the first time since the cost of living crisis began nearly three years ago, as food inflation eased and retailers offered discounts on clothes and household goods to shift unsold summer stock.

New data showed prices were down 0.3% in the first week of August, compared with the same period last year. That compares to a 0.2% rise in July, and the three-month average of 0%.

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Starmer to end £40m helicopter contract in break from Sunak era

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Former PM and ministers drew criticism for the VIP flights Labour says were ‘symbol of their government’

A £40m VIP helicopter contract used extensively by the former prime minister Rishi Sunak is to be cancelled as his successor, Keir Starmer, promises to undo “14 years of rot” under the Conservatives.

Starmer and his defence secretary, John Healey, have decided not to renew a contract for helicopter transport which is due to expire at the end of the year after it was extended in 2023 at Sunak’s personal insistence.

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Glasgow building site where boy died ‘should have had more CCTV’

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Extra security measures only introduced after Shea Ryan, 10, fell down a maintenance hole shaft in 2020, inquiry told

A building site in Glasgow where a 10-year-old boy died after falling down a maintenance hole shaft should have had more CCTV, an inquiry has heard.

Shea Ryan died in July 2020 when he climbed through an unsecured fence on a building site in Drumchapel and fell about 6.3 metres (20ft) down the shaft.

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Woman killed in ‘horrific’ attack and fire in Derry named as Montserrat Martorell Elias

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A 28-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the body of the 65-year-old was found

Police investigating the murder of a woman in Derry have named her as Montserrat Martorell Elias.

A murder investigation was launched after the body of the 65-year-old was found after a “horrific” attack and a fire at a flat in the city.

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Protests held on stage at Edinburgh festival over Scottish arts funding cuts

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Anger grows over proposed cuts of up to £10m for Creative Scotland affecting freelance artists and performers

Actors and directors have protested on stage during the Edinburgh festival after anger about proposed cuts to Scottish arts funding escalated into open revolt.

Protest messages were read out after performances, including at the Traverse, Lyceum, George Square, Summerhall and Church Hill theatres, to loud applause from audiences, as thousands of artists and performers signed an open letter calling for the cuts to be reversed.

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Experts asked to assess strategic threat to UK as part of defence review

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Former Nato chief George Robertson sends 24-page survey to specialists asking for ideas on capability and funding

Members of the armed forces and government departments, manufacturers and academics have been asked to assess the strategic threat to the UK up to 2050 as part of the government’s root-and-branch review of defence policy.

George Robertson, a former Nato secretary general and defence secretary in Tony Blair’s first government, has written to dozens of interested parties with a 24-page questionnaire on the future of Britain’s defence.

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Tens of thousands fill streets on final day of Notting Hill carnival

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Largely peaceful festival marred by fresh stabbing on Monday after three people were hurt on Sunday

Tens of thousands of revellers have turned out to enjoy the final day of this year’s Notting Hill carnival, flooding the streets of west London with colour, dancing and music.

Dancers showed off their flamboyant costumes while floats blasted music for the spectators on the streets of W11. Vendors cooked up a mix of food on open barbecues, as sound systems played everything from rare groove to house, samba, reggae and ska.

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Barclays enlarges half-year bonus pool for first time since 2021

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Rise to £675m after lifting EU bonus cap suggests lender may increase payouts to high-performing bankers

Barclays has bulked up its half-year bonus pool for the first time in three years, raising bankers’ hopes of bigger annual payouts after the lender formally scrapped the EU bonus cap this month.

The bank put £675m towards its bonus pool in the first six months of 2024, according to Barclays filings. That is up from the £665m put aside for its staff bonus pot, which is made up of cash and shares, over the same period in 2023. That bonus pool will continue to be built up until the end of the year, with staff able to be paid up to 10 times their salary now that the EU cap has been set aside.

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Foreign Office officials said Rishi Sunak should attend D-day event, book reveals

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Department twice provided written advice to No 10 before mistake that came to define Sunak’s election campaign

Senior officials at the Foreign Office repeatedly warned No 10 that Rishi Sunak should not leave June’s D-day commemoration in Normandy early, according to new revelations in a book about the Tories’ 14 years in power.

The department passed on two messages to Downing Street in the weeks leading up to the event, which were then ignored in what has gone down as the worst election campaign blunder of the last 14 years.

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Hundreds of London firefighters attend Dagenham flats blaze

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Two people taken to hospital and more than 100 evacuated as major incident declared over fire in east London

A major incident has been declared after more than 100 people were evacuated and two taken to hospital as a fire engulfed a block of flats in Dagenham, east London, which had “known” safety issues.

The London fire brigade (LFB) said it was carrying out a “significant search and rescue operation” after being called to the blaze on Freshwater Road at 2.44am on Monday.

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World’s oldest man celebrates 112th birthday in Merseyside

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John Alfred Tinniswood was born the year the Titanic sank and has lived through the tenure of 24 UK prime ministers

The world’s oldest living man has turned 112 at his care home in Merseyside.

John Alfred Tinniswood, who lives in Southport, put his long life down to “just luck”, and said he did not follow a special diet, except for eating fish and chips every Friday.

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Attorney general intervenes in Foreign Office review of weapons sales to Israel

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Exclusive: Richard Hermer tells officials he can’t approve decision to ban arms without knowing if their use would breach international law

Keir Starmer’s most senior legal adviser has intervened in the contentious decision over whether to ban UK arms sales to Israel, the Guardian has learned, as officials struggle to distinguish between “offensive” and “defensive” weapons.

Sources say Richard Hermer, the attorney general, has told Foreign Office officials he will not approve a decision to ban some weapons sales until they can say for sure which could be used to break international humanitarian law.

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Widen access to classical music with free lessons, says Errollyn Wallen

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First Black woman to become Master of the King’s Music says cuts to education means ‘we’ve lost so much talent’

All children should be taught musical instruments for free at school to widen access to classical music, according to the first Black woman to be appointed Master of the King’s Music.

The Belize-born composer, pianist and singer-songwriter Errollyn Wallen says she plans to use her new role to influence “the things I feel are important in music-making today,” in particular better music education for children.

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