Category Archives: UK news

UK workers must accept lower pay deals to help beat inflation, says Bank ratesetter

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Deputy governor Sarah Breeden also says firms must rein in profits as there is ‘some way to go’ to meet 2% inflation target

Victory in the war on inflation will require British workers to accept lower pay deals and companies to rein in their profits, a senior Bank of England policymaker has said.

Sarah Breeden, one of the central bank’s four deputy governors, said there was still “some way to go” before inflation would fall back to the 2% target set by the government for the Bank to achieve on a sustainable basis.

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Masked protesters could soon face arrest, says Home Office

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Rights groups say proposed police powers for England and Wales are pandering to ‘culture war nonsense’

Protesters who wear masks could face arrest, up to a month in jail and a £1,000 fine under proposed measures that human rights campaigners claim are pandering to “culture war nonsense”.

Police in England and Wales will be given the power to arrest people if they are wearing face coverings at specific demonstrations, the Home Office has said.

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Mobo awards 2024: Central Cee tops winners thanks to megahit Sprinter

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London MC wins best male and song of the year, while Potter Payper beats stiff competition to win album of the year

Central Cee has topped the winners at the 2024 Mobo awards, winning best male for the second year in a row, and best song for Sprinter, his collaborative track with Dave, that dominated the summer months with a 10-week run at No 1.

Elsewhere the awards, which celebrate black musical artistry in the UK and globally, spread the garlands across a diverse range of music, with no one artist dominating.

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No 10 confirms details of PM’s meeting with King Charles in unusual step

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Palace and Downing Street keen to show king is still carrying out core constitutional duties after cancer diagnosis

Buckingham Palace and Downing Street were keen to demonstrate that King Charles remains in close contact with the government on Wednesday, even as he recovers from his first session of cancer treatment.

No 10 took the unusual step of confirming that Rishi Sunak would be telephoning the king in the evening after an agreement with the palace to disclose the information.

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Primodos patients ‘betrayed’ after being left out of health scandals redress report

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Families who may have been affected by hormone pregnancy tests not included in patient safety commissioner’s review

Campaigners have accused the UK government of betraying them after a review of redress for victims of health scandals excluded families who may have been affected by the hormone pregnancy test Primodos.

A report published on Wednesday by the patient safety commissioner, Dr Henrietta Hughes, found a “clear case for redress” for thousands of women and children who suffered “avoidable harm” from the epilepsy treatment sodium valproate and from vaginal mesh implants.

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India’s wealthy ‘fear London is worse than Delhi for muggings’

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Fear of crime in UK capital is one of biggest concerns of rich Indians, says entrepreneur

Indian business people are avoiding being out and about in Mayfair over fears they could be mugged for their expensive watches after a 27% rise in “theft from a person” in London, an entrepreneur has said.

Devin Narang, an entrepreneur, told a meeting attended by David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, that fear of crime in London was one of the biggest concerns of India’s rich elite.

“People are being mugged in the heart of London – in Mayfair,” Narang, a member of the executive committee of the federation of Indian chambers of commerce and industry, said at a meeting in New Delhi, according to the Financial Times. “All CEOs in India have had an experience of physical mugging and the police [in London] not responding.”

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UK weather: Britain braces for Arctic blast of heavy snow and ice

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Met Office issues amber weather warnings with up to 25cm of snow forecast to fall on higher areas

The Met Office has issued two rare amber weather warnings, with heavy snow and ice forecast to hit the UK on Thursday.

One warning is in place from 8am-3pm covering large parts of north Wales and Shropshire. The second runs from noon-6pm and covers the Peak District and southern Pennines.

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Wes Streeting says Labour would reform NHS dentists’ contract within days of taking office – UK politics live

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Shadow health secretary says much of Tory NHS dental plans ‘lifted from what Labour has announced’

During her media round this morning Victoria Atkins, the health secretary, faced awkward questions about funding for NHS dentistry.

In an interview on BBC Breakfast, she repeatedly refused to confirm that the budget for NHS dentistry has fallen over the past decade.

Seeing a minister duck and dive on the reality of dental funding cuts will be hard to swallow for millions who have been left waiting for so long under this government.

The reality is they’ve left our dental services to rot and now think they can rebuild it with a handful of toothpicks.

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Former pop star Gary Glitter must stay in prison, parole panel decides

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Panel said it was not satisfied releasing former singer, jailed for sexually abusing girls, was safe for public

Paul Gadd, known as the former pop star Gary Glitter, has lost a bid to be freed from prison where he is serving a sentence for sexually abusing girls.

Gadd, 79, was automatically released from prison in February 2023, halfway through a 16-year sentence – but was recalled just six weeks later for allegedly viewing downloaded images of children.

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UK house prices rise at fastest rate since January 2023

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Lower mortgage rates lead to increased buyer and seller confidence, says Halifax

UK house prices rose 2.5% in the year to January, recording the biggest increase since January last year, as lower mortgage rates and fading inflationary pressures led to increased buyer and seller confidence, Halifax has said.

January marked the fourth consecutive monthly rise, with a 1.3% uplift on December, the UK’s biggest mortgage lender said, with the average home costing £291,000, £3,9000 more than in December.

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Environment Agency failed to protect River Wye from chicken waste, court to hear

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Campaigners argue in legal challenge that loophole has allowed poultry farmers to pollute river

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The Environment Agency and the UK government failed to protect the River Wye from catastrophic decline by allowing pollution from industrial chicken farming to saturate the land and devastate the protected river, a legal challenge is to argue.

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NHS dentistry ‘recovery plan’ not worthy of the title, dentists say

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British Dental Association says government’s plan does not offer hope to millions struggling to access care

Rishi Sunak has been accused of making a U-turn on his pledge to restore NHS dentistry as experts say his “recovery plan” does not offer enough money to incentivise dentists to take on extra NHS patients.

The prime minister’s long-awaited proposals have been criticised for failing to ringfence funding for the dental sector and reform the NHS dentistry contract, which means millions across the country will continue to struggle to access care.

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Prince Harry returns to UK after King Charles’s cancer diagnosis

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Duke of Sussex makes journey alone, with wife and children remaining at home in California

The Duke of Sussex has enjoyed a brief reunion with the king after taking an overnight flight from California to visit his father following Buckingham Palace’s announcement of the monarch’s cancer diagnosis.

Prince Harry landed at Heathrow shortly after midday following an 11-hour flight from Los Angeles. Travelling alone, the Duchess of Sussex having stayed in the US with the couple’s two children, Harry was pictured being driven from the airport in a black Range Rover with a police escort.

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Craig Wright denies forging documents to support bitcoin claim

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Australian attacks qualifications of his own expert witness during testimony at high court in London

Craig Wright, the Australian computer scientist who says he invented bitcoin under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, has denied forging documents to support his claim.

In his first day of giving evidence at the high court in London on Tuesday, Wright flatly denied any forgery or falsification and attacked the qualifications of his own expert witness who found otherwise. The hearing was part of a lawsuit brought by Copa, a coalition of cryptocurrency-linked tech firms that seek to invalidate his claims.

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Rishi Sunak accused of personally holding up deal to end doctors’ strikes

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Exclusive: Sources say PM has blocked talks due to concerns about knock-on effect of more generous pay offer

Rishi Sunak has been accused of personally holding up a deal to end doctors’ strikes in England despite warnings from the health department and NHS England that waiting lists will continue to soar unless the industrial dispute is resolved.

Sources told the Guardian it had been made “abundantly and repeatedly” clear to the prime minister that there would be no progress on his pledge to drive down NHS waiting lists until a deal was struck.

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GMB members support ballot on strike action over allegations of bullying within union

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Union has been implementing recommendations of 2020 independent report that found it institutionally sexist

A row has broken out at the GMB, one of the UK’s biggest unions, after members of its largest region supported a move towards industrial action over “serious allegations of bullying and harassment”.

Staff in the north-east, Yorkshire and Humberside (NEYH) region overwhelmingly supported a consultative ballot on strike action – used as a shot across the bow when members want to raise a serious issue.

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Misconduct claims tipped CBI into ‘near death experience’, says president

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Rupert Soames says Guardian revelations over sexual misconduct claims were ‘appalling shock’ but is bullish about the future

The new president of the Confederation of British Industry has admitted the Guardian’s revelations of sexual misconduct were “an appalling shock” that tipped the lobbying group into a “near-death experience’’.

Rupert Soames, the City grandee recently appointed president of the CBI, said that this newspaper’s revelations about sexual misconduct at the organisation had triggered an existential crisis – one he is trying to rescue it from.

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Birmingham given go-ahead to raise council tax by up to 10%

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Michael Gove approves exceptional rise for UK’s biggest local authority, affecting 1m people, and three other bankrupt councils

Council tax in Birmingham is likely to increase by up to 10% after the government allowed the local authority to bypass the national cap without the need for a local referendum.

The increase will affect more than 1 million people in the UK’s largest local authority, which declared itself effectively bankrupt last year due to a £300m budget gap.

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Houthis claim fresh attacks on British and US ships in Red Sea

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Two vessels not badly damaged but incident casts doubt on success of UK-US strikes on Yemen missile sites

Houthi rebels say they have successfully targeted a British and a US ship in the Red Sea, casting doubt on the effectiveness of three waves of US-UK strikes on missile sites belonging to the group in Yemen.

Neither of the two ships were badly damaged but the incident will underscore the need for commercial ships either to pay higher insurance premiums or take longer, more expensive routes to avoid the threat of Houthi attacks. A third ship was targeted on Tuesday afternoon, but not struck, at least reassuring Britain that the Houthi capabilities may have been degraded by the US-UK airstrikes.

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Make used electric cars cheaper and tackle battery fears, peers tell ministers

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Grants needed towards buying EVs as well as a battery health testing standard to reassure consumers

Ministers need to intervene to boost the secondhand electric vehicle market and allay “uncertainty and concerns” over the health of their batteries, a House of Lords committee has said.

Peers on the environment and climate change committee urged the government to step up efforts to encourage electric vehicle adoption amid consumer jitters over the cost of vehicles, the longevity of their batteries and the availability of charging points.

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