Category Archives: UK news

Trump fangirl Liz Truss channels Maga menace at US conservative thinktank

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The former British PM went all Trumpy at the Heritage, with an audience hanging on her every word as she promoted her book

Was that Donald Truss? Or Liz Trump? A former British prime minister turned up in Washington on Monday channeling the Maga menace who once lorded it in the Oval Office and now spends his days in a dingy courtroom.

Liz Truss was at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative thinktank in Washington, within sight of the US Capitol dome, to promote her grandly titled book Ten Years to Save the West. Why does she keep coming back to America? It was not hard to figure out.

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Rwanda bill clears parliament after peers abandon final battle over safety amendment – as it happened

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Bill could become law this week as end of parliamentary ping-pong in sight

Q: Do you think you will be able to implement this without leaving the European convention of human rights?

Sunak says he thinks he can implement this without leaving the ECHR.

If it ever comes to a choice between our national security, securing our borders, and membership of a foreign court, I’m, of course, always going to prioritise our national security.

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Labour are ahead in the polls, but have they won hearts and minds? These charts suggest not

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There are signs the party’s polling lead is a bit soft. But with the Tories trailing in leadership and economy, experts are not sure it will matter

As 2014 came to a close, it seemed Ed Miliband would be the next prime minister, with the Labour party leading David Cameron’s Conservatives as the general election approached.

But when the May 2015 results came in, it was Cameron who headed back to Downing Street.

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Thames Water could raise bills to £627 a year to help fix leaks

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Embattled water supplier promises to invest up to £3bn more over the next five years

Thames Water could raise bills to as much as £627 a year to pay to fix its leaky network, after promising to invest up to £3bn more over the next five years.

The embattled water supplier said on Monday that it had updated its spending plans for 2025 to 2030 after discussions with the industry regulator, Ofwat.

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Met chief apologises to Stephen Lawrence’s mother over handling of sixth suspect

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Commissioner says failure to explain why police did not pursue case against Matthew White ‘totally unacceptable’

The Metropolitan police commissioner has apologised to the mother of Stephen Lawrence for not fulfilling a promise to explain why his force failed to properly handle evidence against one of the suspects in the teenager’s murder.

A BBC investigation in 2023 identified Matthew White as the sixth suspect in the case, where only five had previously been known. The broadcaster said Doreen Lawrence had been promised answers to her questions about the way police handled the investigation.

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Tesco accused of undercutting local shops via its wholesale business

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Independent shopkeepers say prices they pay at supermarket’s cash-and-carry arm Booker are often higher than in Tesco stores

Village shopkeepers say Tesco is consistently undercutting them by selling products for less in its stores than via its wholesale business Booker, stoking concerns about the power of the UK’s biggest supermarket chain.

Tesco, which has 27% of the UK grocery market, bought the cash-and-carry group in 2017 for £3.7bn, promising that the deal would benefit shoppers and independent retailers.

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Lawsuit in London to allege Grindr shared users’ HIV status with ad firms

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High court action will claim US owner allowed access to app users’ private information in breach of UK law

Grindr faces the prospect of legal action by hundreds of users who will allege that the dating app shared highly sensitive personal information, including in some cases their HIV status, with advertising companies.

The law firm Austen Hays is to file a claim on Monday in London’s high court alleging that the US owner of the app breached British data protection laws.

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Refugee who left UK for holiday in 2008 stranded in east Africa for 16 years

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Saleh Ahmed Handule Ali, now 33, had indefinite leave to remain in UK, but Home Office failed to keep a record

A refugee who left the UK on holiday as a teenager in 2008 has been stranded in east Africa for the last 16 years in a case that senior judges have described as “extraordinary”.

Saleh Ahmed Handule Ali, now 33, arrived in the UK at the age of nine in April 2000 with his mother and two younger siblings from Somalia. They came to join Ali’s father, who had been granted refugee status by the UK government. The family were also recognised as refugees by the Home Office and Ali was given a travel document in 2004 under the refugee convention, which was valid for 10 years.

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Europe baked in ‘extreme heat stress’ pushing temperatures to record highs

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Europeans are dying from hot weather 30% more than they did two decades ago, report finds

Scorching weather has baked Europe in more days of “extreme heat stress” than its scientists have ever seen.

Heat-trapping pollutants that clog the atmosphere helped push temperatures in Europe last year to the highest or second-highest levels ever recorded, according to the EU’s Earth-watching service Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

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Global defence budget jumps to record high of $2440bn

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For the first time, government military spending increased in all five geographical regions, Sipri thinktank finds

Global military expenditure has reached a record high of $2440bn (£1970bn) after the largest annual rise in government spending on arms in over a decade, according to a report.

The 6.8% increase between 2022 and 2023 was the steepest since 2009, pushing spending to the highest recorded by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) in its 60-year history.

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Thames Water-linked firm paid £14m in dividends despite concerns over group

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Kennet Properties sells off Thames Water land, whose owner, Kemble Water, has warned it would not be able to pay a £190m loan

A development company that sells off land no longer needed by Thames Water has paid out a £14m dividend despite warnings that it could become engulfed by the embattled water group’s financial woes.

Accounts filed at Companies House show Kennet Properties paid out a £14.5m dividend during the year to 31 March 2023, despite the difficulties faced by the wider group, which is facing a potential administration.

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Peter Hain calls for inquiry into MoD’s alleged role in Saudi bribes scandal

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Government auditors must look into claims of complicity in corruption on arms deals with UK, says Labour peer

Alleged Ministry of Defence complicity in the “national scandal” of bribery on arms deals in Saudi Arabia must be investigated by government auditors, a senior Labour politician has said.

Peter Hain, the antiapartheid campaigner and peer, said in a letter to the National Audit Office (NAO) that a “timely, targeted” investigation was now necessary after the conclusion of a major criminal trial.

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People with MND in England and Wales fear losing access to life-extending drug

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Exclusive: NHS cost threshold has not been raised by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence since 2004

People with motor neurone disease have spoken of their devastation at a likely loss of access to a life-extending drug due to an NHS cost threshold that has not been raised since 2004.

Tofersen has slowed the progress of the illness in trials but the chances of the drug being recommended for use in England and Wales are said to be slim.

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Locum psychiatrists providing poor care in Scotland, campaigners say

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Scottish NHS boards have spent more than £125m since 2019 to provide temporary cover amid drop in consultant numbers

Mental health campaigners have protested about the significant use of temporary locum psychiatrists in Scotland, alleging that it leads to substandard and harmful medical care.

Peter Todd, a campaigner based in Caithness in the north of Scotland, said the heavy reliance on locum psychiatrists by the NHS was a sign of a growing crisis in mental health services across the country.

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Former Tory MP Mark Menzies quits amid claims he misused party funds

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MP for Fylde announces he is resigning from the Conservative party and will not stand at next general election

The former Tory MP Mark Menzies is quitting parliament after allegations that he misused campaign funds.

The MP for Fylde announced that he would not stand at the next election after the allegations were referred to Lancashire police.

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‘George’s machines’: museum devoted to George Wyllie opens on the Clyde

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The Wyllieum will showcase work of ‘social sculptor’ who used humour to make serious criticisms of climate crisis and capitalism

He was the artist who sailed a paper boat past New York, set a straw locomotive on fire over the Clyde, and inserted a question mark into the word sculpture.

George Wyllie, a prolific, self-taught “social sculptor” who worked with steel, stone, wood and paper, used humour to make deeply serious criticisms of the climate crisis, capitalism and Britain’s industrial decline.

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Co-leader of Scottish Greens admits coalition with government could fail

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Patrick Harvie said party faces biggest crisis in its history after rebellion over climate policy

The co-leader of the Scottish Greens Patrick Harvie has admitted his coalition deal with the Scottish government could collapse after a rebellion by party activists over climate policy.

Harvie said the Scottish Greens faced the biggest crisis in their history after members forced the leadership to hold an emergency meeting on whether to remain in government with the Scottish National party.

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Being Jewish ‘should never be seen as provocative’, says Home Office

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Statement comes after Met police apologised for calling antisemitism campaigner ‘openly Jewish’

Being Jewish “should never be seen as provocative”, the government has said after a row over the policing of a pro-Palestine march.

In a video released by Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), the charity’s chief executive, Gideon Falter, who was wearing a kippah skull cap, was told by a Met officer at a pro-Palestine march last Saturday: “You are quite openly Jewish, this is a pro-Palestinian march. I’m not accusing you of anything but I’m worried about the reaction to your presence.”

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‘Invincibles’: unbeaten girls’ football team win boys’ league

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Queens Park Ladies under-12s finished top of division three of the Bournemouth Youth Football League with 18 wins, four draws and no defeats

A girls’ football team has won a boys’ league after going unbeaten all season, earning them the “invincibles” title.

Queens Park Ladies under-12s finished top of division three of the Bournemouth Youth Football League with 18 wins, four draws and no defeats.

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Labour shifts poll tactics to target fearful Tory over-65s

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Alarm grows over possible pension cuts as research suggests Jeremy Hunt tax cut announcement was ‘blunder’

Labour is to wage a new campaign to win over Tory-supporting pensioners in an attempt to neutralise one of the government’s last remaining electoral strengths, amid evidence the Conservatives are now performing as badly among the age group as they did under Liz Truss’s leadership.

With less than a fortnight to go until local elections in England, which some Tories fear could trigger an attempt to topple Rishi Sunak, the Observer understands that Keir Starmer’s top officials are reorienting their campaign after detecting alarm among pensioners over the impact a Conservative tax-cutting pledge could have on pensions and the NHS.

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