At least six people lock themselves in Grade II-listed York and Albany next to Regent’s Park and post notice
Squatters have taken over a pub in London leased by Gordon Ramsay that is up for sale with a guide price of £13m.
A group of at least six people locked themselves inside the Grade II-listed York and Albany hotel and gastropub, next to Regent’s Park, boarding up the windows and putting up a “legal warning” defending their takeover, the Sun reported.
Continue reading...Rules due to come in this month will impose new handling fees – and experts say small suppliers are already being driven away
Ministers’ decision to impose Brexit import checks on 30 April will lead to shortages of some foods, flowers and herbs, industry leaders have warned.
In the week after the government was accused of blindsiding the British food industry by giving 27 days’ notice that every consignment of items such as camembert, steak, tulips and chives would be subject to fees of up to £145, small retailers such as delis and farm shops have been scrambling to make sure they still have products to sell.
Continue reading...Stephen Whittle talks about life for young trans people in the 1970s and now, and the influence of ‘anti-trans’ views today
When Stephen Whittle transitioned as a teenager in 1975, he was one of only a handful of young people in the UK to be offered hormone treatment and, later, surgery.
Almost half a century later – much of it spent fighting for trans rights – he said there was “masses” he agreed with in this week’s review of the NHS’s gender identity services by Hilary Cass. He said he also believed the report had been influenced by groups and individuals with “transphobic” views, and said the “potential for positive change must be backed with resources”.
Continue reading...OpenDemocracy investigation names attenders, including Keir Starmer, at Edinburgh meeting to discuss party’s banking policies
Senior members of the shadow cabinet have held a private meeting with a group of financial services companies to discuss the party’s banking policies just weeks after one of the companies donated £150,000 to the party.
Six senior Labour figures – including the leader, Keir Starmer, the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and the shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds – attended the meeting in Edinburgh last December, according to an investigation by the website OpenDemocracy.
Continue reading...Former home secretary will rub shoulders with populist right from across the globe, including Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán
Rishi Sunak is being urged to stop his former home secretary from attending a rightwing convention featuring figures who have been under investigation for extremism, in the latest sign of his waning control of his party.
Suella Braverman, who has been a central plotter against the prime minister since she left the cabinet, is set to be one of the keynote speakers at the National Conservatism (NatCon) conference in Brussels this week.
Continue reading...The superstar arrives in Europe next month – and Swifties, tourist boards and venues are already preparing
Tim Brown, 44, and his wife, Marcella, 34, may not consider themselves bona fide “Swifties”, but when it was announced last June that Taylor Swift would be visiting their corner of the globe this summer they could not resist joining the scramble for a pair of tickets.
A post-pandemic appetite for live music events has fuelled huge worldwide interest in the American singer-songwriter’s Eras tour, which surpassed in $1bn sales in November to become the highest-grossing series of concerts in history.
Continue reading...Stories include man with bruise in shape of Prince Harry and statue of H from Steps being erected in Wales
The comedian Joe Lycett has disclosed the fake stories that he successfully planted in the British media over the past month included a man with a bruise in the shape of Prince Harry and a statue of H from Steps being erected in his home town of Cowbridge in Wales.
In the first episode of his new Channel 4 show, Lycett said four stories that were covered by newspapers and television news were fabricated.
Continue reading...David Blunkett and Alan Johnson join Iain Duncan Smith in dismay at DWP’s treatment of benefit recipients’ minor mistakes
The “scandalous” prosecution of unpaid carers uncovered by the Guardian must end now and an inquiry must be launched immediately, Rishi Sunak has been told.
The pressure on the prime minister grew as three former work and pension secretaries and Labour demanded to know why thousands of people who care for their loved ones have been hounded for thousands of pounds – and in some cases convicted – after unwittingly breaching earnings rules by just a few pounds a week.
Continue reading...Nicholas Panayiotou and Eleanar Attard among gang who planned to smuggle 58kg of the drug into the UK
Members of a gang, including two former winners of a Channel 4 cooking programme, have been convicted after their plan to import large amounts of cannabis was uncovered.
Nicholas Panayiotou, Eleanar Attard, Constantinos Zavros, Luke Wileman and Koby Haik planned to smuggle 58kg of cannabis into the UK from the US, but were foiled after a theft at a London airport, the Metropolitan police said.
Continue reading...Inquest delivers findings 48 years after 10 Protestant workers were shot dead when their minibus was ambushed in County Armagh
The shooting dead of 10 Protestant workers at Kingsmill in Northern Ireland in 1976 was an “overtly sectarian attack by the IRA”, a coroner has ruled.
Nearly eight years after the inquest opened, Brian Sherrard delivered his findings in Belfast on Friday into the Troubles killings in County Armagh.
Continue reading...Exclusive: MP for Enfield Southgate also has whip restored as internal process does not uphold complaint about his conduct
A former shadow minister has been readmitted to the Labour party after a 10-month-long investigation into a complaint about his conduct.
Bambos Charalambous, the MP for Enfield Southgate who lost the Labour whip last June, said he was “delighted” his suspension had been lifted.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Failure to do so would betray working-class people, shadow health secretary says
Wes Streeting has defended Labour’s plans to use the private sector to help cut the NHS care backlog, arguing that a failure to do so would result in a “betrayal” of working-class people who cannot afford to pay for care.
The shadow health secretary said his approach was a “pragmatic but principled one” as he doubled down on his remarks this week about “middle-class lefties” whom he said risked putting ideological purity ahead of patient care.
Continue reading...Gibraltar’s chief minister says progress made in talks about free movement across border with Spain
The UK and the EU are within “kissing distance” of a post-Brexit deal to guarantee free movement over the border between Gibraltar and Spain, Gibraltar’s chief minister has said.
After a meeting between the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, and the European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič, agreement was reached on issues that have dogged negotiations for the past five years.
Continue reading...Adnoc decided move was not right fit but it is latest sign of foreign buyers circling UK firms
Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil company reportedly recently explored a multibillion-pound bid for BP, in a sign that depressed share values in London are making even the biggest British businesses takeover targets.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) considered options including buying BP or acquiring a large stake before deciding it was not the right fit and abandoning preliminary discussions, according to Reuters.
Continue reading...Cross-party committee urges creation of strategy engage with new platforms that appeal to young
The government needs a TikTok strategy to help combat misinformation directed at young people, MPs have said.
Members of the cross-party culture, media and sport committee said the government needed to adapt to new apps and platforms that appeal to young people who are increasingly turning away from traditional sources of news.
Continue reading...London mayor expected to criticise Susan Hall in speech launching panels on school roofs
Sadiq Khan will accuse his Conservative rival in the race to be London’s next mayor of being “Trumpian” over the climate crisis, as he announces plans for solar panels on schools.
Khan is expected to acknowledge resistance to his expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) in a speech on Friday but insist that he still intends to “go further”.
Continue reading...Blue tits, starlings, wood pigeons and blackbirds next most sighted in RSPB survey involving 600,000 participants
A friendly if slightly tuneless chirp is the most ubiquitous birdsong in British gardens with the house sparrow topping the Big Garden Birdwatch charts for the 21st consecutive year, according to the annual RSPB survey.
Blue tits, starlings, wood pigeons and blackbirds were the next most-sighted birds by more than 600,000 participants in the world’s largest wildlife garden survey.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Charges relate to £225m debt with Rights & Media Funding, with records suggesting a trail leading to Michael Tabor
Everton has paid about £30m in interest charges to an opaque lender associated with a tax exile, corporate records suggest.
The charges appear to have reached about £438,000 a week, according to the troubled Premier League club’s most recent set of accounts, a figure more than three times the reported wages of the Everton and England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
Continue reading...George Henderson had to sell his home to repay nearly £20,000, years after ticking wrong box on carer’s allowance form
A carer who says he was “dragged through the courts” and had to sell his home to pay back almost £20,000 in benefit overpayments is fighting to clear his name after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) acknowledged he made an innocent mistake.
George Henderson, 64, said he made a gain of just 30p a week while claiming carer’s allowance for his son John, who has learning difficulties and is addicted to heroin. He now costs the Treasury £1,000 a month more in benefits, having become homeless and too unwell to work.
Continue reading...Nonfiction shows by Sussexes will feature ‘joys of friendship’ and ‘unprecedented access to the world of professional polo’
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are to be the executive producers of two new nonfiction Netflix series focusing on lifestyle and polo.
One show will explore “the joys of cooking, gardening, entertaining and friendship”, while the other will give “unprecedented access to the world of professional polo” and the US Open Polo Championship in Florida, Netflix said.
Continue reading...