Category Archives: UK news

Starmer says Sunak ‘breached ministerial code’ over £2,000 Labour tax-rise claim

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Labour leader accuses PM of ‘resorting to lies’ in TV debate, saying he ‘knew very well what he was doing’

Keir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of deliberately lying when he claimed Labour spending plans would increase taxes by £2,000, saying the prime minister’s tactics in Tuesday night’s TV debate showed he was dishonest when put under pressure.

Amid an increasingly bitter and personal war of words over the standout dispute in the debate between the prime minister and Labour leader, Starmer said be believed Sunak should be investigated for breaching the ministerial code.

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Carbon detected in galaxy observed 350m years after big bang

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Exclusive: ‘Massive’ discovery raises possibility that conditions for life were present almost from dawn of time

Astronomers have detected carbon in a galaxy observed just 350m years after the big bang, in observations that raise the possibility that the conditions for life were present almost from the dawn of time.

The observations, made by the James Webb Space Telescope, suggest that vast amounts of carbon were released when the first generation of stars exploded in supernovae. Carbon is known to have seeded the first planets and is a building block for life as we know it, but was previously thought to have emerged much later in cosmic history.

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Bowel disease breakthrough as researchers make ‘holy grail’ discovery

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Scientists pinpoint driver of IBD and other disorders with work under way to adapt existing drugs to treat patients

Researchers have discovered a major driver of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and several other immune disorders that affect the spine, liver and arteries, raising hopes for millions of people worldwide.

The breakthrough is particularly exciting because the newly found biological pathway can be targeted by drugs that are already used, with work under way to adapt them to patients with IBD and other conditions.

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Woman charged after milkshake thrown at Nigel Farage

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Victoria Thomas Bowen, 25, charged with assault by beating and criminal damage over incident in Clacton on Tuesday

A 25-year-old woman has been charged with assault by beating and criminal damage after a milkshake was thrown at the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, after a campaign event in Clacton, Essex police said.

Victoria Thomas Bowen, 25, will appear at Colchester magistrates court on Tuesday 2 July, Essex police said.

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‘Courage and solidarity’: King Charles pays tribute to veterans of D-day

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Royals, politicians and military leaders begin two days of events to mark 80th anniversary of Normandy landings

The king has paid tribute to D-day veterans at a commemorative event in Portsmouth marking the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings.

Charles said their “stories of courage, resilience and solidarity” move, inspire and “remind us of what we owe to that great wartime generation – now, tragically, dwindling to so few”.

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Asda now the most expensive UK supermarket to buy fuel, study shows

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Chain once prided itself on selling the cheapest fuel but RAC analysis shows it is now the dearest

Asda is now the UK’s most expensive supermarket fuel seller, research shows, after the retailer’s private owners ditched its long-held pledge to be the cheapest on the market.

The retailer, which was bought by the billionaire Issa brothers and their private equity partner TDR Capital in 2021, charged an average 2.1p a litre more for unleaded petrol than rivals Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons at the end of May, according to an analysis by the RAC motoring organisation.

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UK clothing sales to EU plummet as Brexit red tape deters exporters

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Small and medium-sized firms badly hit as huge drop in apparel sales helps fuel 18% slide in all-non food exports

UK exports of clothing and footwear to the EU have dived since Brexit, according to a new study that shows the extent to which complex regulations and red tape at the border have deterred firms from sending goods across the Channel.

Exports of clothing and footwear sold to EU countries have fallen from £7.4bn in 2019 to £2.7bn in 2023, helping fuel an 18% slump in sales of all non-food goods exports to countries covered by the EU single market, according to the consultancy Retail Economics and online marketplace Tradebyte.

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Eight in 10 primary teachers in England spending own money to help pupils

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Increasing numbers of children hungry and lack adequate clothing, with two-thirds of secondary teachers also supporting pupils

Eight in 10 primary schoolteachers in England are spending their own money to buy items for pupils who are increasingly arriving at school hungry and without adequate clothing, according to new research.

Almost a third (31%) of those who took part in the survey said they were seeing more hungry children in class, with 40% reporting an increase in pupils coming in without proper uniform or a warm winter coat, research by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found.

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General election: Starmer and Sunak clash over taxes, the NHS and immigration in head-to-head TV debate – as it happened

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Labour leader says prime minister’s claim he would raise people’s taxes by £2,000 is ‘nonsense’

The Guardian’s visuals team has produced an interactive boundary map for the UK general election which shows you if your constituency has been altered because of boundary changes. You can check it out here:

Ed Davey has been speaking about his party’s plan to provide free personal care for adults. The Liberal Democrats leader said he wants carers to have a special, higher minimum wage.

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Darren Rodwell withdraws as Labour candidate in general election

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Leader of Barking and Dagenham council says he does not want allegations about his behaviour to be a ‘distraction’

Darren Rodwell, the controversial leader of Barking and Dagenham council, has withdrawn as a Labour candidate, saying he did not want allegations about his behaviour to be a “distraction”.

Rodwell’s candidacy was in doubt after it was not confirmed by Labour on Tuesday along with other names of people running to be MPs.

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Sunak and Starmer scrap over tax and immigration in heated first TV debate

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Labour leader tried to focus on the Tories’ record while the prime minister accused opponent of planning tax rises

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer tore into each other’s election promises on tax and immigration in a fiery first TV debate of the campaign.

The pair exchanged barbs in an ill-tempered session before an ITV studio audience in Salford, where Starmer accused Sunak of being “the most liberal prime minister we’ve ever had on immigration” and pledged to keep the UK in the European convention on human rights.

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Ex-Royal Marines reservist held in Dubai on spying charges

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Former lance corporal Matt Croucher was arrested seven months ago, accused of ‘illegally accessing telecommunications’

A former Royal Marines reservist awarded the highest medal for gallantry has reportedly been held in Dubai since November after being accused of spying.

The former lance corporal Matt Croucher, 40, was awarded the George Cross, which ranks alongside the Victoria Cross as the highest decoration for acts of bravery, in 2008 after risking his life and saving others by throwing himself on a grenade in Afghanistan.

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Mounjaro is second obesity drug to be approved for use in England

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Those with BMI of 35 and a comorbidity can now be prescribed tirzepatide and Nice says it is more effective than Wegovy

The medical treatment regulator for England has approved a second drug to combat obesity, giving patients and doctors what it says is a more effective alternative to semaglutide.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) issued draft guidance on Tuesday recommending that very obese people should be prescribed tirzepatide, which is marketed in the UK as Mounjaro.

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Owner of UK national lottery operator to sever ties with Gazprom

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Allwyn parent company says deal to buy 3% stake in Czech gas facility will cut final link with Kremlin-controlled energy firm

The billionaire owner of Allwyn, the company that runs the national lottery, will sever his last remaining ties with Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom by the end of June, more than two years after winning the UK’s largest public sector contract.

The Czech tycoon Karel Komárek, who owns Allwyn via his Switzerland-based holding company KKCG, has faced scrutiny over his links to Russia since wresting control of the 10-year licence to operate the lottery from Camelot in 2022.

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UK galleries rushed to diversify art after Black Lives Matter, artist says

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South Africa-born painter Gavin Jantjes says institutions tried to buy work they ignored decades earlier

British arts institutions deployed “kneejerk” and “stopgap” responses in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter movement as they attempted to avoid criticism for the lack of diversity in their collections, according to the artist Gavin Jantjes.

The South Africa-born artist, who was a key figure during the British black art movement of the 1980s, told the Guardian that under-pressure organisations approached him to buy work that they had ignored since it was made decades earlier.

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Labour pledges to investigate treatment of migrant workers in care sector

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Exclusive: Yvette Cooper says a Labour government would instruct new enforcement body to act over alleged exploitation of workers

Labour will launch an investigation into the treatment of migrant workers in the British social care sector if it wins the election, the party has announced, after dozens of cases of alleged exploitation were uncovered.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, called the allegations revealed by the Guardian “a disgrace”, accusing the government of turning a blind eye to the problem.

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Falling UK inflation not leading to rise in spending, report finds

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May recorded the lowest spending growth since February 2021, Barclays’ snapshot of card activity shows

Consumer spending growth is at its weakest in more than three years as higher council tax bills and the rising cost of broadband and mobile phones eat into household budgets, a report has said.

The monthly snapshot of credit and debit card activity from Barclays found an improvement in consumer confidence as a result of falling inflation was not leading to a pickup in spending.

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Tribunal cases to rise as UK firms push back on remote working, experts say

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Some employers emboldened by ruling against FCA manager’s claim over working at home full-time

Lawyers and HR experts expect an increase in employment tribunal cases as companies increasingly clamp down on working from home and staff become resentful that the flexibility they have enjoyed since the pandemic is being slowly rolled back.

A number of companies are now advocating a full five-day return to the office, with others enforcing a minimum number of days in the workplace. Administrative staff at Boots, who previously worked in the office three days a week, will return to the office five days a week from September. Many US banks, such as Goldman Sachs, also expect senior staff to come in for the full week, and its chief executive, David Solomon, labelled remote working an “aberration”.

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English pupil funding at same level as when Tories took power, study finds

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Real-terms funding per pupil at 2010 levels, teacher pay at 2001 levels, and building investment 25% below mid-2000s

Spending on each schoolchild’s education in England has suffered an unprecedented 14-year-freeze since the Conservatives came to power, according to Britain’s leading economics thinktank.

Funding per pupil is now at 2010 levels in real terms, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said in its latest analysis of school spending, while teacher pay was at about the same real-terms level as in 2001.

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Artificial cornea implant saves sight of man, 91, in NHS first

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Cecil Farley says implant, which could become standard treatment, means he can still see his wife of 63 years

A 91-year-old man who became the first patient in England to have his sight saved by an artificial layer in his cornea has praised the procedure for allowing him to still see his wife.

Cecil Farley, from Chobham in Surrey, had problems with his right eye for about 15 years before losing his vision. He required a cornea transplant to save his sight but his previous surgery – a graft with a human cornea – failed and doctors warned the next might too. And the shortage of human corneas from deceased donors meant Farley faced a year-long wait.

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