Category Archives: UK news

Penny Mordaunt’s Tory leadership rivals blamed for coup plot rumours

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Allies of Commons leader say other future candidates for top job are trying to make her look disloyal

Penny Mordaunt’s rivals in a future Conservative leadership contest have been blamed for briefing coup rumours meant to ruin her chances of eventually taking over from Rishi Sunak, the Guardian has been told.

The Commons leader, who came a close third in the leadership contest won by Liz Truss in 2022, has in recent days been at the centre of speculation over an alleged plot to try to oust the prime minister to avert a general election disaster for the Conservatives.

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More young people being radicalised online, says UK counter-terror officer

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Senior detective warns children are accessing extreme material as a result of lockdowns, after a 20-year-old was jailed on Monday

A senior counter-terrorism officer has warned that children and young people are increasingly being radicalised online after spending long periods on the internet during the pandemic.

Det Supt Andy Meeks said a growing number of vulnerable people were accessing extreme material after spending hours unsupervised online.

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It’s too late to replace Sunak so Tories must ‘march towards the sound of the guns’, Ben Wallace says – as it happened

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Former defence secretary tells colleagues there is no alternative to Rishi Sunak and to ‘get on with’ preparing for an election. This live blog is closed

Ofcom has ruled today that GB News broke impartiality rules on five occasions by using Tory MPs as news presenters.

But it has not imposed sanctions on the broadaster. It says these count as first offence, and that there may be sanctions if it happens again.

Under the Broadcasting Code, news, in whatever form, must be presented with due impartiality. Additionally, a politician cannot be a newsreader, news interviewer or news reporter unless, exceptionally, there is editorial justification.

In line with the right to freedom of expression, broadcasters have editorial freedom to offer audiences a wide range of programme formats, including using politicians to present current affairs or other non-news programmes. Politicians may also appear in broadcast news content as an interviewee or any other type of guest.

These are the first breaches of Rules 5.1 and 5.3 recorded against GB News. Since opening these investigations, there has only been one further programme which has raised issues warranting investigation under these rules. We are clear, however, that GB News is put on notice that any repeated breaches of Rules 5.1 and 5.3 may result in the imposition of a statutory sanction.

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Rose Dugdale, English heiress turned IRA bomb maker, dies aged 83

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Sinn Féin members pay tribute to Dugdale, who was also involved in 1974 art heist and police station attack using hijacked helicopter

Rose Dugdale, who went from a background of wealth and privilege in England to become an IRA militant and bomb maker, has died in a Dublin nursing home aged 83.

Dugdale was presented as a 17-year-old to Queen Elizabeth as part of the 1958 summer debutante season. Years later, in 1974, Dugdale was given a nine-year prison sentence, in part for her role in the theft of 19 paintings from the home of a wealthy British politician.

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Idris Elba reveals ‘dream’ of building eco city on island off Sierra Leone

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Actor and his childhood friend planning development on Sherbro to be a public-private partnership

Idris Elba has shared details of his “dream” to turn an island off the coast of Sierra Leone, the country where his father was born, into an environmentallyfriendly smart city.

The actor is working with his childhood friend to develop Sherbro, which is roughly the size of the Isle of Man, after the island was given enough autonomy by the west African nation’s government to allow the work to go ahead.

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UK house prices rise by 1.5% in biggest increase for 10 months

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Data from property website Rightmove finds average asking price has reached almost £370,000

An increase in buyer demand and stronger house sales during March have combined to push the average UK home’s asking price up by a further £5,279 to almost £370,000, as the market picks up after a “muted 2023”.

According to the UK’s biggest property website, Rightmove, this month’s 1.5% price growth is notably higher than the historical March average of 1%, and is the biggest monthly increase for 10 months.

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Government urged to tackle poverty to help the NHS

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Healthcare delays in deprived communities mean greater need for expensive emergency treatment, research finds

People living in poverty find it harder to live a healthy life and face barriers to accessing timely treatment, new research suggests.

A report by the King’s Fund, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, finds that the delays people living in deprived communities face for healthcare mean they are more likely to need expensive emergency treatment.

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UK researchers find way of diagnosing bowel cancer without biopsies

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PET scans can examine entire bowel before and during treatment, avoiding risks associated with taking tissue samples

Researchers in Glasgow have identified a new means of diagnosing and treating bowel cancer with imaging technology, avoiding the need for biopsies.

Biopsies require an invasive procedure with a number of health risks, such as infection, and are limited in what they can capture within a patient’s bowel.

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UK scientists working on breast cancer monitor fitted in bra

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Researchers at Nottingham Trent University hope device used at home will improve tracking of tumours

Scientists are developing a device that fits inside a bra and could monitor whether a breast cancer tumour is growing.

Researchers hope the device will provide a new non-invasive method of detecting tumour growth that patients can use “in the comfort of their own homes”.

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‘Laced with fear and a lot of fun’: Punchdrunk announce new ‘slumber party’ show

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Company founder Felix Barrett says Viola’s Room, written by Daisy Johnson, will be an audio-driven production perfect for date nights

Punchdrunk’s last immersive production, The Burnt City, drew more than 600 masked theatregoers each night to spend three hours venturing around a sprawling saga based on Greek myths. Their next show, announced on Monday, will invite them to take off their shoes and socks for a slumber party.

“This whole thing is a bedtime story,” said the company’s founder, Felix Barrett, of Viola’s Room, which will open in May at their headquarters in Woolwich, south-east London. Audiences will wear headphones rather than masks and follow what Barrett called an audio-driven “linear story” rather than explore the “open world” of Punchdrunk’s trademark shows, which let you roam freely around the space. Theatregoers will, according to publicity material, “feel their way through a maze-like installation as an unseen narrator guides them on a sensory journey”.

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M25 reopens ahead of schedule

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A five-mile stretch of the London orbital motorway had been closed since Friday night to demolish a bridge

The M25 in Surrey reopened eight hours ahead of schedule on Sunday after the first planned daytime closure of the motorway.

The five-mile stretch of the motorway between junctions 10 and 11 had been closed in both directions at 9pm on Friday and was scheduled to remain inaccessible until 5.30am, in order to demolish a bridge and install “a huge gantry”.

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‘A farce, not an election’: Russians abroad join ‘Noon against Putin’ protest

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Voters turn out at midday from the UK to Latvia and Turkey to Thailand in action Alexei Navalny endorsed before his death

The queue to vote at the Russian embassy stretched for more than half a mile along Kensington Gardens on Sunday as hundreds of Russians arrived at midday as part of a worldwide act of protest to show their opposition to Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine.

It took a quarter of an hour to walk to the end of the queue past people bearing signs that read: “These ‘elections’ are fake”, “My president is Alexei Navalny” and “Vladimir Putin, go fuck yourself”.

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Rishi Sunak will lead Tories into election, Mark Harper says

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Cabinet minister urges backbenchers to have confidence in party leadership amid reports of plot to remove PM

Rishi Sunak will lead the Conservative party into an election at the end of the year despite reports of rebellious MPs plotting to oust him to avoid wipeout at the polls, a senior cabinet minister has said.

Mark Harper, the transport secretary, told his fellow MPs to “have some confidence” in the party leadership, insisting Sunak was focused on “making the right decisions” for the country.

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Steve Harley, Cockney Rebel frontman, dies aged 73

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Singer-songwriter best known for 1975 song Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) died on Sunday, family says

Steve Harley, the frontman of the rock group Cockney Rebel, has died aged 73.

The English singer and songwriter, best known for his 1975 song Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me), had been receiving treatment for cancer. He died at his Suffolk home on Sunday morning.

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Young carers in England and Wales ‘forced out of education’ by benefit rules

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Charities and education providers say young carers should be eligible for welfare when they study more than 21 hours a week

Young carers in England and Wales are being blocked from staying in education and going to college or university by benefit rules that unfairly penalise them, according to a coalition of charities and education providers.

The group of more than 200 organisations and representatives is lobbying ministers to exempt young carers – those aged 16 to 24 who often look after relatives – from the rule that makes them ineligible for the government’s carer’s allowance if they study for more than 21 hours a week.

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Millions more in cash needed to fund UK’s open-banking watchdog

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Exclusive: £10m needed for regulator charged with developing tools to thwart financial crime and protect consumers

Banks are under pressure to stump up millions of pounds in interim funding for the organisation that polices open banking, with regulators saying the new money is needed to prevent financial crime and protect consumers if things “go wrong”.

Large banks including NatWest, HSBC, Lloyds and Santander UK were among more than 40 City firms summoned by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) last week to discuss a cash injection into Open Banking Limited (OPL), the body that oversees innovation in this area.

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Nearly half of UK families excluded from modern digital society, study finds

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Exclusive: Lack of online skills and access creates digital divide that amplifies other exclusions, says report

Almost half of UK families with children lack the online skills or access to devices, data and broadband required to participate in today’s digital society, research shows, with an expert saying this divide is an “amplifier of other exclusions”.

Research shared exclusively with the Guardian found that 45% of households with children did not meet the threshold. Families from low socioeconomic backgrounds in deprived areas and households outside London were among those who were less likely to meet it. Households from minority ethnic backgrounds and those with disabled parents were twice as likely to fall below it.

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Cambridge college unmasks alumnae who were Bletchley Park codebreakers

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Names of 77 ex-students of women-only Newnham College who worked at Bletchley Park are revealed for first time

They worked day and night during the second world war, deciphering Nazi messages, breaking Enigma codes and analysing top-secret military documents. But until now it was not known just how many of the intrepid female codebreakers who worked at Bletchley Park had studied at the same place, forming a hidden network of scholars who secretly changed the course of history.

The names of the 77 alumnae of Newnham College – a women-only college that is part of Cambridge University – who were recruited to intercept, decrypt and translate military messages during the war have been revealed for the first time in a college exhibit and roll of honour.

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Dozens of dead wild animals dumped outside Hampshire shop

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Police investigate discovery of about 50 hares, an owl and a kestrel at door of Broughton community shop

A police investigation has been launched after dozens of dead animals were left outside a shop in Broughton.

The Broughton community shop in Hampshire said it was “shocked” to discover the bodies of about 50 dead hares, as well as a barn owl and a kestrel outside on Friday.

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Over a third of first time buyers relying on ‘bank of mum and dad’

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Tories accused of deserting those without financial support, as proportion relying on help with deposits rises from 27% to 37% in a year

Rishi Sunak has been accused of “locking the door on home ownership” and entrenching inequality, amid evidence that tens of thousands more young house buyers have been forced to turn to the “bank of mum and dad” to secure a new home.

A crisis in housing affordability is again set to be a major election flashpoint, with the prime minister already admitting in recent months that the Conservatives needed to do more to address falling home ownership rates among the young. The party has failed in its manifesto pledge to build 300,000 houses a year.

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