Category Archives: UK news

Jailed UK climate protesters facing conditions reserved for extremists on release

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Exclusive: Just Stop Oil activist was banned from attending gatherings, including meeting a friend in a cafe, without permission

Environmental protesters are being given licence conditions on release from jail that are supposed to be limited to extremism cases.

Ella Ward, 22, was banned from going to any meetings or gatherings, except for worship, without permission from her probation officer, although the Ministry of Justice dropped the condition after she brought a legal challenge.

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A rats to riches story: Larry the Downing Street cat finds place in TV spotlight

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Popularity of Britain’s top mouser – ‘the guy to meet in No 10’ – to feature in documentary series

He’s on his sixth prime minister, has watched presidents and princes walk through the black door of No 10, and will soon become the longest continuous resident of Downing Street since Pitt the Younger.

The landscape of British politics has changed a lot in the past 15 years, but Larry the cat has remained a reassuring constant. Now his enduring popularity – the like of which some of his temporary owners would kill for – is to feature in a new Channel 4 documentary series exploring Britain’s love of cats. For his fans, the spotlight has been a long time coming.

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Parental failure and gaps in the law: why the Southport atrocity was preventable

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After nine weeks of inquiry evidence, a picture has emerged of systemic breakdown and poor information sharing

Of all the professionals who studied Axel Rudakubana before his murderous attack in Southport last summer, the notes of a rookie police officer in 2019 may be the most prescient.

The actions of Rudakubana, then aged 13, showed “potential for huge escalation”, wrote PC Alex McNamee after spending just 20 minutes with the teenager when he admitted taking a knife to school to attack a bully. The risk, he wrote, was “high”.

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Toby Carvery owner urged to fund ‘life support’ for felled Enfield oak

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Sprinklers could save 500-year-old tree that had branches cut off without authorisation in April, says expert

The restaurant chain Toby Carvery is being urged to pay for life support for an ancient oak tree that its owner had chainsawed last spring to widespread public dismay.

Experts say the trunk of the 500-year-old tree, on the edge of a Toby Carvery car park in Whitewebbs Park, Enfield, has shown signs of regrowth, despite its branches being sawn off by the restaurant’s contractors in April.

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Joey Barton found guilty of sending offensive posts on social media

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Former footballer guilty of six counts of sending communications with intent to cause distress or anxiety

The ex-footballer Joey Barton has been found guilty of six counts of sending a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety.

A jury at Liverpool crown court found Barton, 43, had “crossed the line between free speech and a crime” with six posts he made on X, formerly Twitter.

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UK troops treated for hearing problems in final tests of Ajax armoured vehicle

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The £5.5bn model was classified as fit for army deployment in September but soldiers continue to raise health fears

Soldiers had to be given medical treatment for hearing problems this summer during final testing of the British army’s new Ajax armoured vehicle, whose introduction has been delayed for several years amid concerns about deafness.

The model, which costs £5.5bn for 589 vehicles, was nevertheless classified as fit for deployment in September. An investigation concluded there were “no systemic issues” – but there remain health concerns among the troops involved.

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Shirley Valentine actor Pauline Collins dies aged 85

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Family pays tribute to actor who was a ‘bright, sparky, witty presence on stage and screen’

The Shirley Valentine actor Pauline Collins has died aged 85, her family has announced.

She died peacefully, surrounded by her family, in her care home in Highgate, north London, having had Parkinson’s disease for several years, they said.

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Nandy breached code over appointment of donor to lead football regulator

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Culture secretary ‘deeply regrets error’ after inquiry finds failures in declaring past donations by watchdog nominee

Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, has apologised to Keir Starmer after an inquiry found she failed to say that her choice of nominee to lead a new football regulator had donated to her and to Labour before she nominated him for the role.

Nandy said she regretted the errors highlighted in a report by William Shawcross, the commissioner for public appointments. Her apology comes a week after the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, made her own written apology to the prime minister for failing to obtain a licence before renting out her family home.

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Lammy says he was right not to discuss mistakenly freed prisoner at PMQs

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Justice secretary says he did not have ‘all the detail’ at the time and there is ‘mountain to climb’ on prisons crisis

David Lammy has said the government has “a mountain to climb” to tackle the prisons crisis and insisted he was “not equipped with all the detail” when questioned in parliament the previous day about a mistaken prisoner release.

After a fraudster mistakenly freed from prison handed himself in on Thursday, the justice secretary said he had been right not to provide details to MPs at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday about the release of a sex offender who remains at large.

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Lucy Powell says Labour must stand by promise not to raise key taxes

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New deputy leader also calls on government to lift two-child benefit cap urgently and in full

Labour should stand by its manifesto commitment not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT, its deputy leader, Lucy Powell, has said in a challenge that will put pressure on Rachel Reeves.

With the Treasury examining whether to raise income tax to plug a £30bn fiscal hole, Powell said it was “really important we stand by the promises we were elected on and do what we said we would do”.

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Danes are Europe’s keenest nudists in principle and practice, survey suggests

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YouGov study of six countries finds those in Denmark most likely to approve of nudism and have been naked in public

Germans may have a hard-won reputation for being Europe’s most enthusiastic nudists, but a survey suggests Danes are not only more accepting of stripping off in public, but more likely to have actually done so.

The YouGov survey of six western European countries – the UK, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – found that Danes were the most likely to say it was perfectly OK to bare all in public places – and to have followed through.

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Garden shed of vaccine pioneer Edward Jenner added to heritage at risk register

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Hut where father of immunology trialled first smallpox vaccine among 138 additions to Historic England list

A rustic, ordinary-looking English garden hut regarded as the birthplace of immunology – revolutionising global public health and saving countless lives – has been added to the nation’s heritage at risk register.

The hut belonged to Edward Jenner (1749-1823, regarded as someone who has saved more lives than any other human. It was there that he first trialled a vaccine for smallpox in the late 18th century.

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China-critical UK academics describe ‘extremely heavy’ pressure from Beijing

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Reliance on overseas students’ tuition fees under scrutiny as scholars describe chilling effect of being targeted

UK academics whose research is critical of China say they have been targeted and their universities subjected to “extremely heavy” pressure from Beijing, prompting calls for a fresh look at the sector’s dependence on tuition fee income from Chinese students.

The academics spoke out after the Guardian revealed this week that Sheffield Hallam University had complied with a demand from Beijing to halt research about human rights abuses in China, which had led to a big project being dropped.

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British military announces first delivery of Ajax armoured vehicles – eight years late

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First 50 vehicles, costing nearly £10m each, finally ready to deploy to Nato’s eastern flank, where drones now dominate

Britain’s military has announced the first delivery of Ajax armoured vehicles, eight years behind schedule and amid questions about their relevance as cheap drones dominate the battlefields of Ukraine.

The junior defence minister Luke Pollard said the first 50 vehicles, costing nearly £10m each, were ready to deploy on Nato’s eastern flank, though he acknowledged the problems of the past when delivery deadlines of 2017, 2020 and 2021 were all missed.

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Prison sentencing reforms will lead to up to 6% rise in crime, police chiefs say

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Government plans include more short sentences being suspended and earlier releases from jail

Government plans to radically reform sentencing will lead to an increase in crime by as much as 6% in a single year, according to police chiefs.

The reforms, which cover England and Wales, involve a presumption against short sentences of a year or less, with community sentences used instead, and those jailed being released earlier than currently the case.

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Lancashire’s Reform-run council plans to close care homes and day centres

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Questions about potential conflict of interest as council’s cabinet member for social care owns private care company

Lancashire’s Reform-run council has been accused of “selling off the family silver” through its plans to save £4m a year by closing five council-run care homes and five day centres and moving residents into the private sector.

One of the care home residents, a 92-year-old woman, said she would leave only by “being forcibly removed or in a box”.

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Second accidental release of prisoner ‘utterly unacceptable’, No 10 says, as Lammy blames system left by Tories – UK politics live

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Lammy, standing in for Keir Starmer, avoided answering questions on the mistaken release during PMQs

David Lammy starts by saying the PM is in Brazil.

He says the thoughts of all MPs are still with the victims of the appalling attacks in Huntingdon and Peterborough, where, he says, he was at school for seven years.

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Reform’s public-sector pensions plan could cost billions extra, union warns

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Prospect says proposals to make payouts less generous would damage public finances rather than save money

Reform UK’s plans to make public-sector pensions less generous could cost billions extra a year and cause a ticking timebomb in the public finances, a leading trade union has warned.

Prospect said the plans unveiled by the party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, would damage the public finances rather than save money “and end up costing taxpayers tens of billions of pounds in the years to come”.

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Police ‘urgently’ looking for prisoner freed by mistake in London

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Algerian man, 24, ‘released in error’ from HMP Wandsworth two days after stronger checks for jails were brought in

Police have launched an urgent manhunt for a second foreign prisoner freed mistakenly, two days after the justice secretary, David Lammy, brought in stronger checks for jails.

The 24-year-old Algerian was wrongly released from Wandsworth prison in south London last Wednesday, with the Metropolitan police informed only this week.

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Global stock markets fall sharply over AI bubble fears

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Drop in US, Asia and Europe follows warning from bank bosses that market correction could lie ahead

Global stock markets have fallen sharply amid concerns that a boom in valuations of artificial intelligence (AI) companies could be rapidly cooling.

Markets in the US, Asia and Europe have fallen after bank bosses warned a serious stock market correction could lie ahead, after a run of record stock market highs led some companies to appear overvalued.

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